3 minute read
GLAMPING IN THE U.S.A
RUBEN MARTINEZ
CO-FOUNDER OF GLAMPING HUB, THE AMERICAN GLAMPING ASSOCIATION AND THE GLAMPING PODCAST
Ruben Martinez
The first two to three months of the pandemic were really tough for the glamping industry all around, but soon after that, glamping emerged as the bright spot in the travel space for several obvious reasons that we all know now. The summer of 2020 was a record setting year for a majority of businesses in the industry and it left operators with an appetite to double down on their operations and expansion plans have been in full force since the end of the busy season.
Every state here is managed a bit different, but I would say that overall, there was a strict stay at home order in place for the first several months. After that the restrictions really did not affect the industry. Glamping operators took good care of making sure that guests felt safe and that their cleaning protocols were top notch, but the summer was a boom for the industry as everyone was looking for a post isolation escape and glamping proved to be the gateway to the outdoors for a large subset of displaced travellers.
There are mask restrictions and dining restrictions across the states, though Florida and Texas just lifted their mask mandate and said that they are "open". It's a weird time here now because the vaccine roll-out is in full swing and every state is trying to navigate what that means for their local economy. Most people have friends/family that are fully vaccinated at this point so the feeling really is that all restrictions will be lifted sooner than later. So, for the glamping space there really wasn't a blanket restriction on the industry and was actually perceived as a safer option for travel than traditional hospitality, though certain states had harsher state at home orders that affected the beginning of their season.
Yes, hyper local travel here, so driving to a location under 3 hours has surged and will continue to drive the hospitality economy through 2021. Discovering our own backyard locations has really been a popular theme for all travel at the moment.
There is a large amount of development going on at the moment and it is happening fast and at a large scale. There are large developers and hotel groups that are diversifying their product by now offering glamping, there are small mom and pop operators that are entering the market for the first time, and everything in between. Solving for seasonality is also top of mind for many operators, being able to stay open 12 months out of the year is a pursuit. Investment is also coming in hot and heavy into the space. And I would also say another trend would be that there are a lot of unique partnerships that are occurring. Before an operator would have to do all of the lift and own every aspect of a project but now the industry has shifted to unique joint venture and lease agreements and third-party partnerships to help scale their business in a way that wasn't possible before.
Yes, there is a really cool project and group of projects that is launching next week outside of Texas on a state park system called LCRA. It is a waterfront property, which will be massively popular in Texas, with hard sided safari style units that will be all season and an example on how to operate a business year-round. The units safely survived the 100-year snowstorm and deep freeze Texas just experienced. There is fishing, hiking, biking, boating on site and is 30 minutes away from Austin. It is a great example of partnership in the glamping space and will be the first of several camps on their thousands of acres of property.
