The Next Decade of Glamping

Letter from AGA founder:

BY RUBEN MARTINEZ

As we begin to wind down the 2021 glamping year, it is safe to say that the past 24 months has been one that the industry will look back on for years to come. I believe that as we take some time to reflect, we now have access and insight to what the next decade in the glamping industry will look like and more specifically what key current conditions will continue to drive the future momentum and the success for all small and large, existing and new organizations in the space. Travel isn’t changing, it has changed. And here is what the next decade of glamping will look like.

Ruben Martinez, AGA Founder

TRADITIONAL HOSPITALITY WILL DIFFERENTIATE

We will continue to see large scale investment in the outdoor space coming from large organizations and entities that would typically develop in the traditional sector. Covid hit their businesses hard and that trauma has taught them that unless they differentiate their product offering, such as glamping, their operation will feel vulnerable with the shift in consumer demand. It is no secret that hotels and traditional hospitality have been hit very hard during this pandemic and that they will not see a full recovery for some time. They took note that the outdoor space was and continues to be the bright light in the travel space and will continue to act on that information.

GLAMPING WILL BE THE GATEWAY TO THE OUTDOORS

For many travelers traditional camping will still feel like a stretch. Those that are used to vacationing in a hotel or urban setting can’t be expected to jump into the outdoors in the numbers needed to signal a shift. But what we will see over the next decade will be a large subset of travelers that are not ready to rough it and camp but want to experience the outdoors in a comfortable manner. Glamping will prove to be the gateway to the outdoors for this emerging market and a jumping off point to other outdoor adventures.

UNIQUE EXPERIENCES WILL BE MANDATORY

New and existing operators will be spending more time on fine tuning their product offering and providing an experience that is truly unique and a brand to go with it. Gone will be the days of operators just throwing up any kind of structure and having automatic success because of supply constraints. The consumer over the next decade will have a more experienced outdoor lodging palette rooted in years of glamping stays and will not tolerate subpar experiences as more options emerge into the space and their options become more numerous and refined.

THERE WILL BE CONSOLIDATION IN THE SPACE

Over the next several years we will continue to see investment into this space at a scale and speed that this industry has never seen before across several vertices within outdoor unique hospitality. With this appetite for growth, institutional capital will uncover that in many investment opportunities it will be more cost and time effective for them to buy instead of build and existing companies will be acquired and will merge.To date this is something we haven’t seen because of the relative size of the industry and the perceived limited options, but the shift is on horizon. Consolidation in the glamping space hasn’t happened like it has across other hospitality fields, but it will and when it starts it will set off a domino effect.

For more info please contact:

https://americanglampingassociation.net/

info@americanglampingassociation.net

American Glamping Association