The market share of the camping industry within the overall European tourism industry is sizeable. It generates 12 % of all overnight stays in Europe and in some countries, around one third of all overnight stays (such as 33% in Denmark, 32 % in Luxembourg and 29% in France). It is worth approximately 12 billion EUR and it consists of 28.400 campsites and generates 400 million overnight stays. (Eurostat, 2019). With its unique potential for sustainable growth and green economy, the camping industry can play an important role in protecting the competitive advantages that make Europe the most attractive tourist destination in the world. The CAMPMASTER project contribute to the body of knowledge available educating young people on how best to achieve sustainable growth in the camping industry and to raise awareness of this unique opportunity in the camping sector. The starting point of the project is that, despite the growing significance of the camping industry for the overall European economy and its potential role in meeting the demands of the green transformation, there is a lack of any formal education specialised in camping management in Europe. Because of the specificity and complexity of campsite services and the future transformation of campsites into green resorts, existing tourism education at higher education level does not correspond with the actual nor future skills needs of the industry. By adopting the participative approach that facilitates exchange and a co-creation process between different stakeholders, this project proposes set of actions at international level for closing the gap between current and future skills in higher education in the area of sustainable camping management. As a result, the main objective of the project CAMPMASTER is to prepare the ground for the roll out of a first joint Master programme in Sustainable camping resort management. The project will consist of defining, based on a strong cooperation between camping industry stakeholders, university teaching staff and students a framework for competences, knowledge and skills of a camping resort manager and derived from it, a curriculum and the organisational structure for a joint Master study programme. The project will produce four intellectual outputs. Firstly, the learning outcomes and modules of the future Master study programme on Sustainable camping resort management will be defined (IO1). Secondly, the partners will develop the complete curriculum with all syllabi, teaching and assessment methods for all courses (IO2), using the manual on how to draft syllabi. Thirdly, these outputs will be made publicly available alongside other open educational resources (OERs) on the newly developed Learning platform for the camping industry (IO3). And finally, research and analysis into the best practices in sustainable camping management will yield a selection of teaching case studies that will be equally open source (IO4). Duration of the project of two years comes out of the ambition to start with the study as soon as possible and to join European efforts in building green society. The project will involve three European universities specialized in tourism and hospitality education, located in Croatia, Spain and The Netherlands and it will have a strong European dimension.. The project also includes three partners from the camping industry – one national camping association from Croatia, one regional camping association from Gerona and one European camping association of the best European campsites representing in total 12 European countries. The target groups in this project are students and university teaching staff who will participate in the preparation and also future implementation of the joint Master programme. Students will gain recognition and experience, while teaching staff will benefit from better teaching competences through their cooperation on designing, developing and testing innovative teaching methods across borders. The professionals in the camping industry will also benefit from the opportunity to influence the learning outcomes of the joint Master study programme and therefore the skills of their future workforce. Finally, through the dissemination of the project results, especially the Learning platform, entrepreneurs and managers in the wider camping industry will benefit from better research, resources and know-how on sustainability in camping management. After the completion of this strategic partnership project, the expectation is to start the enrolment of students into the new joint Master programme in Sustainable camping resort management that will be performed across three universities (Girona, Breda and Rijeka) including an internship programme in the best European camping resorts. This university-business cooperation at EU level is expected to contribute to a better awareness of sustainability in managing camping and an overall increase in quality and competitiveness of the sector.
The main objective of the project CAMPMASTER was to prepare the ground for the launch of the first joint master's degree program in sustainable camping resort management, named Master of Sustainable Outdoor Hospitality Management, under the newly developed curriculum. In line with this objective, the project consisted of defining a framework for the competencies, knowledge and skills of a camping resort manager based on close collaboration between camping industry stakeholders, university teaching staff and students, which eventually resulted in the curriculum and organizational structure of the joint master's program. However, the results of the project exceeded expectations and the accreditation process began before the end of the project. So, the joint master's program is accredited by national accreditation agencies from Spain and the Netherlands. Croatia expects to receive confirmation of accreditation in December 2022, which confirms that not only the goal of developing the curriculum has been achieved, but also the start of a new study program, that will begin in September 2023.
Due to the growing importance of the camping industry to the overall European economy and its potential role in meeting the requirements of the green transformation, there is a perceived lack of any formal education specialized in camping management with a focus on sustainability, in Europe. Given the long line of work and research in the camping industry and the fact that the camping industry makes up a large share in the overall European tourism industry, the initiative started at an informal meeting during the camp congress in Croatia. Because of the specificity and complexity of campsite services and the future transformation of campsites into green resorts, existing tourism education at the higher education level does not correspond with the actual or future skill needs of the industry. By adopting a participatory approach that facilitates the exchange and co-creation process between different stakeholders, the project, i.e. the curriculum and the newly created courses, will, as envisaged, provide the opportunity to bridge the gap between business needs and education in the field of sustainable camping management at the international level.