The decision to extend the trial of access by prior reservation to the small creek of Sugiton was adopted unanimously at a meeting of the Board of Directors, indicated the management of the park.
As in the summer of 2022, reservations will be made online.
The measure, a first in France for a national park, made it possible to limit access to Sugiton, one of the most beautiful coves in the Parc des Calanques, to 400 people per day, during a test weekend in June, then all the days from July 10 to August 21.
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Very far from the 2,500 visitors who congregated there on certain summer days, overcrowding which had led to a strong deterioration of this fragile environment.
Since mid-May 2022, the Park has been engaged in a vast communication campaign, by way of posters but also on social networks, to inform the public of these new booking methods, a first in a French national park.
Two fines issued in 2022
“
It is a little early to assess precisely, but there has been much less damage to the environment and there has been no problem with the acceptability of the measure
,” the chairman of the council told AFP. administration of the park, Didier Réault.
There were thus only two fines drawn up and the feedback from visitors on their "
experience
" in a less crowded site was very positive, he underlined.
The extension for five years was proposed because the scientific council of the park considered that "
it is the right duration to be able to observe a possible environmental recovery
", she specified.
The duration of the measure will also be extended to two weekends in June, the entire months of July and August and two weekends in September.
Attendance has indeed picked up strongly as soon as the experiment ended this summer.
“
There are no plans to extend this system
(of quotas)
to other sites in the park
, assured the director, Sugiton being in a particular situation with the
fear of irremediable environmental damage
”.
