Wednesday, March 12, 2014

NATURISM IN EUROPE: DEFINITION AND TOLERANCE BY DIFFERENT EU COUNTRIES


For many people, naturism is essentially the same as nudism with the distinctions between skinny-dipping, nude sunbathing and social nudity blurred. This report offers an invaluable analysis of official definitions and the development of organised naturism around the world, highlighting the important contribution that it can make to tourist economies and looking at how naturists in countries with colder climates commonly travel overseas for a holiday with some element of nudity.

Individual case studies look at how naturism is practised in different countries, naturist tourism, and the prognosis for its future growth. The countries selected give an insight into naturism within a variety of contexts including:

Countries where naturism is well-developed and fairly widely accepted (France, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK)

Countries where attitudes to public/social nudity are liberal and the naturist product is quite well defined (Croatia, Spain and the Scandinavian countries)

Traditional beach holiday destinations where naturism is tolerated rather than embraced (Portugal, Greece and Italy)

Countries where organised naturism is very much an emerging concept (Bulgaria and Luxembourg) and Countries where naturism is inhibited by culture, religion and the law (Ireland and Malta). Whereas in Ireland bona fide naturists are tolerated by the police force in Malta naturists are still taken to court making Malta the only county in Europe where naturism is not tolerated. In fact in Malta, like in Iran, even naked mannequins are not tolerated (see: http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20091018/local/police-get-shirty-over-nude-mannequins.277911).

Malta - a tourism dependent European country in which naturism and naked mannequins are still not welcomed