6 minute read
Fostering Community
By Todd Wynne-Parry
Many outdoor hospitality and glamping brands, including independent lifestyle operators (ILOs) have basically the same company mission or “why”. They generally converge around the theme of connecting their guests with nature. This is certainly a noble goal. We all need more of the natural environment in our lives to balance out the ever-growing amount of information and technology forced upon us.
Further implied in many of these company missions is a promise to facilitate an opportunity for guests to commune with both nature and your loved ones. In some instances, there is an invitation to guests to be part of the destination’s community or to commune with others who simply share a love of the outdoors. This includes those that may not look exactly like you or come from a similar economic, demographic, or cultural background. The glamping sector holds a unique ability to deliver on this goal of fostering community.
Smart phones and those in control of social media found on these devices seem to encourage us to stay in our silos of “like minded” people and institutions. We know from history how dangerous this can be. Peace, love and understanding used to be a popular aim for society. The understanding part, which makes the other two goals achievable, is difficult to obtain when one’s information sources are limited or exposure to other communities is feared. Fortunately, in the world of outdoor hospitality, guests are encouraged to disconnect from the digital world and re-connect with all the things and people in the real world. Glampgrounds can provide the perfect physical and emotional setting to gently expose us to our many similarities despite superficial differences. Therefore, fostering community in outdoor hospitality is every bit as important as exposing the “nature averse” to the flora and fauna in our shared environment.
Looking at this topic through a generational lens enhances the importance of community. For Baby Boomers and Gen Xrs lack of community in their lives was never an issue. These folks had churches, fraternal orders, sports clubs, community clubs, they played outside almost daily and grew up without the internet or mobile phones. When it came to hospitality in the mid- to late-twentieth century, this cohort valued consistency and standardization. Millennials grew up with all that consistency, but then as they began to travel, they demanded authenticity from its accommodation providers. Hence, the explosion of lifestyle and boutique hotels that oozed with local character and authentic food & beverage experiences. For Millennials, their grandparent’s coffee would not suffice, they required locally roasted coffee with an ethical harvesting story. Now Gen Z is starting to become the next target for the travel industry. This cohort, like their elders also require authenticity from hospitality, but then stack on top a need for social or environmental justice. This youngest generation has been hit hard with an entirely unregulated social media and all out attacks on real world community. They have grown up replacing real-world community with their comfortable online environment. According to a recent SKIFT article Gen Z now realize its lack of real-world community and are showing they crave it. This presents an opportunity for outdoor hospitality generally and glamping more specifically to fill this void.
The whole concept of Glamping is to provide accommodation and comfort outside one’s known built environment. While RV campground or luxury wellness retreat guests are generally comfortable in these different settings, for the glamping guest this may be the first time sleeping in a tent or cooking over a campfire. Glamping is aimed directly at the “nature averse” or the “nature curious”. It offers an approachable, even aspirational way of sleeping in nature. For many glamping guests, even this comfortable camping can be an extreme level of adventure. These new to the natural world guests are immersed in an environment that is well outside their comfort zone. Therefore, while we have that guest already succumbed to this wild and adventurous setting, it is a natural time to facilitate the opportunity to add “communing with strangers” to the adventure.
How the glampground facilitates guest-to-guest communing can be either passive or active. The passive approach for a small independent property with limited space and only a few accommodation units may come by informing guests to patronize local food & beverage, other service providers or alerting them to nearby community events. For larger properties, the existence of communal workspaces, fire-pits, yoga decks, BBQ stations/ outdoor kitchens, pickleball courts, and dog runs can all foster community on property. These facilities can round out the guest experience and ensure an active campground with lots of opportunity for guest-to-guest interaction. In addition, many of these communal facilities can also be utilized for the property’s important corporate and social events business.
The active approach may need additional human resources to implement, which could be prohibitive for some operations. However, for many guests a guided hike, cooking over fire instruction, yoga class, cornhole tournament or live music session is just enough enticement to interact outside their immediate group. Developing this programming expertise on a complimentary basis during the year can hone these skills which can be packaged up for sale to corporate and social groups. Another active approach is to establish an annual event schedule to promote both guest-to-guest as well as local community support and interaction.
Regardless of how a glamping operation foster’s community, the key is to create opportunities for this aspect of the experience. As participation in real-world community institutions have declined so has the general well-being of Americans. Statistics around depression, drug use and malaise all point to the importance of real-world community. While it may not be taken up by all guests, for some guest-to-guest interaction can be life changing or at the very least create a positive memory that will last well beyond the Instagram moment.
About Todd G. Wynne-Parry
A seasoned leader in the hospitality industry, Todd has over 30 years of hotel development experience, having held senior leadership positions at several major hotel brands and most recently AutoCamp and Two Roads Hospitality. A dual-citizen of the US and Australia, Wynne-Parry has lived and worked in the U.S., Asia, Australia and the United Kingdom. He was instrumental in the development efforts for IHG, Starwood and Marriott in the Asia Pacific region and for Two Roads Hospitality globally. He began his career as a hotel consultant in the San Diego office of Laventhol & Horwath, the predecessor to Horwath HTL. He is now Managing Director of Horwath HTL and leads the Outdoor Hospitality practice for North America. Horwath HTL is the largest independent hospitality consultancy with 52 offices worldwide.
Todd earned an MBA from Thunderbird Graduate School of International Management and sits on the advisory council of the American Glamping Association. In his spare time, Todd enjoys fly fishing and exploring the western US in his 1953 Airstream.
