Awarded in Tourism Awards 2019 - Tourism Policy Work
A great joy and honour being awarded at Tourism Awards 2019, as a pioneer in the Greek Tourism Industry, for my research on Glamping. It brings me pride & optimism, knowing it is the first time that Tourism Awards dedicates a special category for research work, acknowledging its pivotal impact on Strategy & Innovation. My submission was the first ever piece to be crowned with this title, additionally holding the honorary badge of the 'Periklis Lytras Research Award'. Most importantly, it is the first time ever that 'Glamping' is mentioned and recognised as a distinct niche within the tourism field. I consider this as an achievement that goes beyond myself and my work. It is an open acknowledgment that Glamping is here to stay and it deserves being treated as a unique field, blending beautifully Nature, Luxury, Experiential, Thematic & Sustainable Travel.
The award holds a rather symbolic value for me, personally, but also for my initiative to formalise my involvement in the field, through the (unforeseen I must admit) creation of my own consultancy. On a personal level, it comes to epitomise two years of silent work and devotion on the field -- a journey that officially started with my academic thesis on Glamping Consumer Behaviour, at The London School of Economics. A journey that was further enriched along the way, vividly gaining industry recognition and appraisal. From this perspective, it seals a period of intense personal endeavour for me, during which I wholeheartedly devoted time and effort to make the first professional steps in the field I so much love!
Beyond that, I see this recognition in a forward-looking way for the Glamping sector all together and all the aspirations we, Glamping-aficionados, have for the growth and flourishing of the field. I am convinced that this is the first, but certainly not the last time that the term 'Glamping' will be featured in country-specific, regional and global travel industry gatherings. And that as time goes by, it will be occupying more and more space in the agenda of industry leaders forecasting, assessing and simultaneously creating the Global Tourism Outlook.
On this bright occasion, I would like to draw your attention to some of the major issues, I keep recurring into, throughout my work. Issues playing, in my opinion, a catalytic force for the field's future prognosis:
Legislation
We need a specific legislative and regulatory framework for Glamping to work. This is intuitive for some of the already developed Glamping markets but it's certainly not the case in the majority of other countries I have travelled, lived or undertaken projects in. The UK, Australia and recently Argentina give a great example of progress towards this direction. However, the lack of concrete legislation on semi-permanent, unique accommodation and travel offerings, situated in natural landscapes, is still resounding in many European countries, including my home country Greece and the Mediterranean region in general. There can be no hope about the 'growth' of the sector if we don't make it feasible first to 'give birth to it'. For this to happen, we need robust, clear, investor-friendly, bureaucracy-free legislative foundations, which will set the tone for the Glamping field of each country and will constitute by themselves positive incentives for potential Glamping operators. From my rigorous involvement to make this happen, I can testify that national governments and tourism authorities are already aware of this need, especially when diverse interests groups unanimously agree on this necessity. Intent, however, is not equivalent to execution. Hence, I do hope that we will be soon talking about tangible measures for the establishment of the sector, measures that will prove the public sector's commitment to facilitate and give the first big boost to the Glamping Tourism niche.
Traveller-first approach & Educating out future Glamper
All the research I have conducted so far was motivated by one thought: to show who is the Glamper out there, what does s/he thinks, wants, desires, needs, expects, what motivates them, what pushes them to do Glamping. If I could sum up my advice to potential Glamping operators, it would be this: Don't go out investing on any small or large-scale Glamping venture thinking of some imaginative target group, which you expect that will love what you do, once you create it. Sure, there are hints on market trends, there are success stories to admire and wish to replicate, there are unique & beautiful travel offerings to create based on existing suppliers and the experiential possibilities your location offers you. Indeed, there is a lot of anecdotal evidence to convince you that people love Glamping! But keep your specific Glamper in mind all along! There are Glampers who value your eco-label disproportionately more than others, there are Glampers who value nature more than others, there are Glampers who want seclusion, others who want to spend time with the ones they love, there are all sorts of different consumer desires, behaviours and expectations out there. Gather as much information as possible on them, pin down to the finest level possible (through all possible means, quantitative and qualitative) what your target Glamper wants to see, feel and experience from you. Then go and start building it!
At the same time, there is no doubt we still need to educate our potential Glamping customers. We need to educate them on what Glamping is and what Glamping has to offer, so as to maximise its reach and popularity. We should listen to them and, then, make sure we are heard on what we can give them back. We need, as a sector, to capitalise on the word 'Glamping' to educate and attract all those willing to learn but are still unaware of the Glamping experience.
Which brings me to my last point.
Synergies & Best Practices
As the sector grows (andin order for the sector to grow), we should work synergistically as an industry. And by that I don't just mean on the B2B level, which is already being done greatly by organisations such as Glamping Business and their Glamping Show & Global Glamping Summit. We need to come together and join forces to make the field known, to exchange knowledge and resources, to reinforce each other on the path to success. Whether we are marketers, strategists, planners, legal experts, environmentalists, glamping suppliers, contractors, local communities, local authorities and stakeholders, etc. The Glamping sector, at least in continental and south Europe, is still in its infancy. It's not yet crowded and offerings are de facto largely differentiated and small-scale, with certain capacity to serve their markets & segments. It's also hard to speak of tight competition between the existing players, since Glamping offerings are so spatially dispersed and, more often than not, appealing to different markets from the outset (staycation market for example).
It is my strong belief that, as the sector tries to build its base and reputation, we are being 'competitive' by working together, as a whole, and not in competition with each other. A consumer who will do Glamping in Spain and love it is highly likely to be the consumer who will also wish to do Glamping in Greece the following summer. By making the sector known as a whole, we convey the knowledge that there are other offerings out there that are equally unique and equally interesting to explore; that Glamping is a global phenomenon; that Glamping is not just a trend but a contemporary way of travel and holiday-making. I believe that in this nascent stage of the industry, the excellent experience a Glamper will get in one Glamping site in the world is the best predictor of his willingness to be a recurrent Glamping customer in general. It is the best indicator of whether s/he will spread word-of-mouth about his experience of Glamping. In this phase of Glamping, again speaking about Europe in particular, we should first put all our resources to make Travellers loyal to Glamping, make them the evangelists of the field, make them spread among each other that this is an existing, alternative way of vacation-making, with lots of potential options for each consumer to choose. Curated Glamping databases, such as The Glamping Hub make a great effort towards this direction.
I want my research to pave the way for more exploratory work on the field, for more synergies to be achieved between the players of the field. I want to invite all stakeholders to connect and share best practices, to unite in working groups, to work with local authorities, to have a collective say on the optimal way to structure the Glamping sector, now, right at the start of it.
In Greek we say: Well begun is half done (η καλή αρχή είναι το ήμισυ του παντός). Let's make the start of the Glamping field, a good start. The good start that deserves such a promising, much-talked-about, much dreamt way of vacationing, as Glamping.
The face of travel is changing, we all know this. It's changing cause the way we choose to travel has evolved; it has become more conscious, more personalised, more attuned to our individual needs as travellers. The true leaders of the tourism industry are the ones who respond to this change, foresee it and build the equivalent holistic travel experiences that activate the 'traveller' and not the 'tourist' within us. Glamping is the result of this shift in travel preferences. And we should all work hand in hand to make it an exemplary niche in Travel, one that actively heard its travellers and, from its infancy, was built to serve them. 🏕💫
With my beloved Maya Tsokli, head of the Tourism Awards Judge Committee. She is the first person I started travelling the world with, mentally, since primary school age; the voice behind the narrations of the world's farthest lands in my childhood ears; the female explorer figure I subconsciously wanted to resemble. Such a moment for me meeting you, Maya 💙🌎 #CitizensoftheWorld
PS: Special thanks once again to the first person who believed in this, Dr. Haider Ali (London School of Economics). Haider accepted to supervise and help my rather unconventional research endeavour, at the very start of it, being the only one not 'scared away' by the novelty of the word 'Glamping', shadowing my efforts and going the extra mile to help me apply all I knew to the Glamping case. We dared do something truly novel, we dared walk out of the mainstream path and ultimately he showed me what any great Professor should strive to show: that research should serve us and we should not passively serve research. Looking back, I am very proud I persisted and didn't shy away, faced with discouragement and suspicion when sharing my excitement to open up the gates of such a new field. I now have at hand a very useful, applicable tool to consult Glamping businesses. And this, to me, is a great example of research, not produced and consumed simply for academic purpose, but research having direct, tangible, meaningful industry impact. May this industry-level award motivate more researchers, strategists and marketers to produce valuable knowledge, directly relevant to the advancement of Tourism and the ever-increasing niches within it, such as the Glamping one.