Knowledge Base
Plenty of numbers circulate about glamping, and most of them come without a source. This series takes the other route: every claim names where it came from, and where we have no source, the article says so.
The basics
-
01
What glamping is, and what it is not
The word is a blend; the thing is not. Three questions decide whether what you are planning is glamping or something else, with a different audience and a different cost.
-
02
Why there is demand for it, and why it will not go away
Glamping is not a design fashion but a response to four lasting changes. If none of the four reverses, neither will the demand.
-
03
Where glamping came from, and what can actually be known about it
The first written occurrence of the word is 19 February 2005, in a Guardian article, and it entered the dictionary in June 2016. The origin story read everywhere, however, does not rest on this: for the lineage from the safari camp to today's glamping we found not a single academic source.
The market
-
04
The world in numbers, and why there is no such picture
We went through nine countries looking for official statistics, and no comparable world figure exists. What does exist: the British statistics are the only ones in the world that name glamping separately, and they measure that a glamping night brings in 47% more than a campsite night.
-
14
Who supplies, who builds, who brokers
Five different players work in a glamping project, and beginners usually mix them up. The most expensive mistake is asking for planning from someone whose business is selling.
Beyond Europe
-
05
North America: the same list, three entirely different yardsticks
Three country pages, 59 rows, measured data for 53 accommodations. On the American "ten best" list the lowest review count is 102, on the Canadian one it is 5. The same page template, the same month, a twentyfold difference in what making the list means.
-
16
Latin America: what most people book gets the worse grade
Four Latin American lists, measured data for eighty entries. Among the "best ten" entries there is not a single score below 9.0; among the most booked, twenty-five out of forty are, and getting onto the list in Argentina takes eighteen times fewer reviews than in Costa Rica.
-
17
Asia: where getting onto the list is cheaper than you would think
Four Asian glamping lists, measured data for forty accommodations. The most important thing is not the price level but that the "ten best" lists often rest on five or six reviews. For a Hungarian place just starting out, this is rather good news.
-
18
Australia and New Zealand: the most booked luxury campsite here is a holiday park
In Australia, eight of the nine most booked entries belong to the same three holiday park chains, and of the nineteen most booked Australian and New Zealand places not one goes above 9.0 points, while on the "ten best" list of both countries all ten entries are above 9.0.
-
19
Africa: where the glamping word is not in the names
Of the names of 81 accommodations on five African glamping pages, 14 contain the word safari; of the 166 names on the other nine country pages, not one. Meanwhile it is exactly the reverse: the word glamping appears in 35 non-African names, and in zero of the 81 African ones.
Europe
-
06
Western Europe: where the word glamping no longer sets anything apart
Four Western European lists, and a result we were not looking for: in the developed markets the word glamping has spread so far that it has dissolved back into the ordinary accommodation supply. For a Hungarian newcomer this is good news, and a warning too.
-
07
Southern Europe: where the campsite is the starting point, and the name is no guarantee
Three Southern European lists, and the only one among the measured countries where guests gave noticeably worse scores. On the Greek list, the lowest review went to the place with Luxury Glamping in its name. This is the most expensive lesson in the whole series.
-
08
The EU as a market: the growth did not come from new places
In the EU27 the number of campsite nights grew by 34.4% in ten years, while the number of campsites grew by only 7.9%. The overwhelming part of the growth came from better use of existing places, not from new ones opening, and for a Hungarian newcomer this means a different strategy from what the growth figure suggests.
The region
-
09
Six countries, six kinds of glamping
Booking's six national glamping selections do not differ from one another by degree, but in character. They do not measure the market, but they do show what is missing from the well rated slice of our supply.
-
10
Hungary: yurts on the list, and what follows from that
Booking's Hungarian glamping selection is strikingly uniform: five of the ten entries have a yurt in their name. This is not the whole market, but it is the most concrete signal available today, and it shows a newcomer which shelf is empty.
-
11
The two neighbours there is the most to learn from
Austria and Slovenia started from the same position as Hungary, and took two completely different paths. One built on the landscape, the other on the brand. Only one of the two can be copied.
-
12
Croatia: the most watched and the least copyable neighbour
Anyone looking for a glamping example looks at the Croatian coast first. Yet what operates there are large, well capitalised campsite chains, on infrastructure that does not exist at home. And if one reads the list through, it turns out the best reviews do not even go to them.
-
13
Slovakia, Romania, Serbia: the nearby, young markets
Three neighbours where glamping is at the same stage as here, or one step ahead. That is exactly why they are more instructive than the big ones: here the supply is still shaped by small, standalone places.
Decision
-
15
Who should take up glamping, and who should not
Seven questions to put to your own situation. They are not about whether glamping is good, but about whether it is good for you, and those two are not the same.
-
20
What a Hungarian investor learns from this
After measuring nineteen articles, seven findings remain that change a planning decision. The most important one is not about the market, but about the fact that the most-viewed number, the "top ten" list, measures something other than what its reader thinks.