Municipality of Avers (GR): "Create offers instead of sending campers away".

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From the Report from Tele- and Radio Südostschweiz

The municipality of Avers in Graubünden has been using "Parkn'Sleep" for the management of camper pitches for two months. The story began in the Avers municipal council, where a solution was desperately sought for the increasing number of wild campers. "People were simply camping everywhere. There was no actual ban," says Kurt Patzen, mayor of Avers, to Radio Südostschweiz. Robert Garbade, a member of the municipal council, agrees: "Some campers simply relieved themselves somewhere in nature. When the snow melted in spring, the extent of the problem became visible. Faeces on cow pastures are problematic."

To the radio programme / From Min '23

To the TV report / From Min '2 ''20

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Create offers instead of sending people away

In principle, camping was not part of the tourism concept of the municipality of Avers until recently. But: "The campers became more and more. Simply sending the guests away was not an option for us. On the contrary. We wanted to create an offer for the campers." This is where the Lucerne-based start-up Parkn'Sleep comes in. Together with the mobility club TCS and the University of Applied Sciences Graubünden, the start-up launched an app in the summer that allows campers to check in and out digitally. Without any pre-registration.

"With the app, we want to move away from prohibition signs and towards official places for campers," says Dany Gschwind, sales manager of the start-up. "We are all die-hard campers in the company. And we also noticed that wild camping was increasing during the pandemic." The cooperation with the municipality of Avers worked out excellently, Gschwind confirms. And the president of the municipality, Patzen, is also satisfied: "So far, the experience has been surprisingly good. We've been working with the app for about two months, and since then about 100 people have camped like this. I see that as a success.

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Stay overnight with just a few clicks

Using the app is easy, even for people with no previous digital knowledge, Gschwind promises. "We have a board that we make available to the municipalities and parking space operators. There is a QR code on it. Guests can check in and out via this QR code. We can include individual fees, such as visitor's tax, for each pitch."

Despite the success, however, the municipality of Avers does not want to make more campsites available. "Rather, we are expanding the existing four sites, marking them better and adapting them even more to the needs of our guests," says Garbade.

Content published by Südostschweiz.

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