We warmly welcome you to the New Year. Hopefully you have come in safe and sound - our good wishes are with you. Even though the spring fairs are being cancelled one after the other, we are undeterred heading for the light at the end of the tunnel. The booking trend for the summer tells us, that you are also very positive. Some offers for the summer peak season are already fully booked. We would like to thank you for this confidence, and we will work very hard not to disappoint you: As far as we can influence it, we will make your 2022 holiday pleasant, free, and uncomplicated. At the same time, it will be as safe as it can be, because we have been developing our hygiene concepts into extremely effective routines for almost two years now and have proven their effectiveness. We are strengthening our management team to be able to work even more efficient for your holiday success. On 1^st of January, we appointed Simone Pokrandt from Hamburg as managing director. She has been deeply grained in the camping world in Europe for more than 20 years, most recently worked for ADAC Camping GmbH and PiNCAMP. Before, she held various responsible positions at the European Camping Group. Until the end of the first quarter, Simone Pokrandt will carry out the tasks together with the previous managing director Eicke Schüürmann, who is retiring on 31^st of March after more than 16 years for reasons of age. In 2022, 37 LeadingCampings in ten European countries are awaiting you, each one very much looking forward to your visit. Our Holiday Guide, the printed catalogue, is also available now. The long list of pre-orders for mailing will be handled quickly. Nevertheless, you will also find all the essential information at www.leadingcampings.com. Have a look!

LeadingsClub

Welcome in the LeadingClub! Each month there is a lucky winner of a "feel good camping week" at a different campsite amongst the club members. The winner of the LeadingCamping week of December 2021 is Wolfgang L. from the area around Kiel in Schleswig-Holstein. He may look forward to having a treat at the Feddet Strand Resort on the Danish Island Seeland. Have a look what this campsite has to offer at www.feddetcamping.dk .The LeadingCard is the entrée into the LeadingsClub. The most popular benefits at a glance:

1. Every month a raffle of a full week's stay at one of the LeadingCampings, restaurant meals, wellness, sports, and fun included.
2. Late check-out and pitch upgrade*
3. Preferential reception and/or reserved counter for LeadingsClub. *
4. Benefits and privileges on every LeadingCamping for club members, including overnight stays for bonus points (not on all LeadingCampings). *
5. Reserved space in leadingcampings.com website where you can control your point account, find current offers and much more interesting information.
   

* Examples of the various LeadingsClub. Offers can vary from campsite to campsite and are not available at every LeadingCamping.

Campsite Award

The first camping award of the year is the Campsite Award 2022. As every year, the readers of the magazines Reisemobil International, Camper Vans, Camping, Cars & Caravans, Abenteuer Camping and the Reisemobil-Bordatlas choose from a pre-sorted list of nominated campsites. Votes are cast in a total of twelve categories, some of them branch out into sub-categories. For example, the sanitary rating separates into ‘design’ and ‘functionality’ or the animation rating into ‘children’, ‘youth’ and ‘adults’. Although this is a fair representation of reality, it makes neither the ballot paper nor the list of results clear. In each of these categories there is a first, second and third place. The Zugspitz Resort in Ehrwald in Tyrol was able to achieve one of these top 3 in each of an awe-inspiring nine, i.e., in three quarters of all available categories, Südsee-Camp in six each and Hvidbjerg Strand Feriepark, Denmark in three. Wulfener Hals scores high in youth animation. However, the most convincing result from the point of view of LeadingCampings is the rating in the category ‘Best Overall Offer’, because fortunately this is completely in Leading hands: 1^st place Zugspitz-Resort, 2^nd place Südsee-Camp and 3^rd place Hvidbjerg Strand Feriepark. Congratulations!

Camping van het Jaar

Due to the pandemic, Utrecht was on the internet again this year. At least the Dutch Automobile Club ANWB held its Camping Gala, traditionally always taking place during the Vakantiebeurs in Utrecht, now as a virtual event on 12^th of January. The highlight was eagerly awaited, the announcement of the ‘Camping van het Jaar’. On the part of LeadingCampings, Camping De Paal in Bergeijk was nominated in the category ‘best family campsite’ in the Netherlands - the winner in several previous years. In the category ‘best rental offer’ Papillon Country Resort as Dutch Leading and Europacamping Nommerlayen as foreign Leading are among the nominees. In the end, other candidates were elected, a total of eight from four categories - one each in the Netherlands and abroad. More information: www.anwb.nl/kamperen/nieuws/2022/januari/winnaars-camping-van-het-jaar-2022

ADAC Camping Gala

This year, one again the ADAC Camping Gala, which has been held at the CMT trade fair venue for years, had to take place as a virtual format. At short notice, thanks to Covid-19 it took place as a livestream on 14^th of January. The greatest suspense was the announcement of the winners of this year's ADAC Camping Awards. However, the three LeadingCampings in the race did not make it: Nature Parc L'Ardechois was nominated in the category ‘Innovation & Progress’, Strandcamping Waging in the category ‘Demographic Change & Accessibility’ and Feddet Strand Resort for the ‘ADAC Booking Award’. However, the highlight of the evening was the admission of Dr Josipa Cvelic Bonifacic into the Hall of Fame. She was honoured mainly for her initiative in setting up the Erasmus-funded master's programme ‘sustainable campground management’. In this project, the lecturer with a doctor' degree from the University of Rijeka has been closely connected with LeadingCampings from the very beginning. However, this cooperation has a longer history: The active Croatian had already joined LeadingCampings nine years earlier with Camping Krk, when she was still working for the Valamar Group and had played a leading role in developing the concept of Premium Camping Resorts. Her expertise and professionalism were highly appreciated qualities at every member’s meeting and at many staff trainings. More information: www.pincamp.de

New Camping Award

At the end of December, also the Dutch ACSI publishing house announced a new initiative for campsites: The ACSI Awards. For the first time in its history, ACSI is presenting a camping award in the form of a public vote, in eight categories and in different countries. All guests can vote for their favourite campsite in Europe. The announcement and presentation will take place in April 2022.
ACSI has selected the following categories.
1, best campsite in the category ‘Small & Fine’
2. most dog-friendly campsite
3. best campsite swimming pool
4. campsite at the most beautiful location
5. best campsite for hiking and cycling tours
6 best campsite restaurant
7. most beautiful camper van pitches
8. best campsite entertainment
In each category, campers vote for their favourite campsite. After the voting deadline, one winner per country will be chosen in each category.
The voting started at the turn of the year and campsites can also ask their guests to vote for them. In this video www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgZ6NTSwT48 ACSI Managing Director Ramon van Reine personally explains the awards for the campsites. You can vote at www.eurocampings.de/awards/ until 20^th of March 2022. The eight categories in which you can participate vary from campsite to campsite and have been determined by ACSI based on the annually reviewed inspection data of campsites. More information: www.eurocampings.de/awards/