Glamping Advisor’s Managing Partner Lars Schäfer sat down with Publituris Hotelaria, the hotel managers’ magazine, to talk about turnkey solutions for glamping in Portugal.
You can read the full article in Publituris Hotelaria, but we’ve put together some of the highlights below.
Glamping’s meteoric growth
Glamping’s popularity has grown so rapidly thanks to its strong alignment with sustainable, nature-based tourism, wrote Publituris Hotelaria, and Glamping Advisors is “following this growth,” said Lars. “We’re here to work and support promoters in creating and promoting glamping.”
The growth doesn’t stop here, however, with Lars explaining to the publication that “there is great potential for glamping, offering nature tourism with special structures that stand out architecturally, and which differ from the common offer of boutique hotels, rural hotels or farms.”
With you from the get-go
Glamping Advisors helps to conceptualize, plan, create and expand glamping businesses, based on sustainable tourism operation and a personalized approach, the article notes. This is possible thanks to the “team of specialists in various areas” that makes up Glamping Advisors and the unique approach they take to each promotor and project.
“We are primarily consultants, but we can provide services throughout the value chain, from creating to operating a glamping site,” Lars told Publituris Hotelaria, explaining that “along the way, we have made contacts with many people and companies that are part of the ecosystem, including equipment suppliers.”
Good sites start with good suppliers
We are starting to see quality glamping structure suppliers in Portugal, Lars explained to the publication, and there are many more worldwide. “We work with many of them because it’s part of the service we can give to promoters,” he said in the article, “advising which are the most suitable for the type of segment you want to target and the type of operation you want to pursue.”
The suitability of a structure also depends on the legislation around it, which Lars noted was under development in Portugal where Turismo de Portugal “assured us that they are working on it in order to facilitate and update the Legal Framework for Tourist Enterprises.”
A complementary pairing
Thanks to glamping’s versatility and the growth of wine tourism in Portugal, Glamping Advisors has been in discussion with various vineyards about wine glamping. “It’s a complementary proposal, very attractive and we’re getting feedback,” Lars told thepublication.
Quinta da Pacheca, for example, is notable thanks to its wine tourism, rooms, wellness and glamping. “It’s very well done,” Lars said to Publituris Hotelaria. As such, “they manage to sell [the rooms] very expensively, because of the special way it is, and glamping is an experiential tourism,” he continued.
A price worth paying
It isn’t only wine glamping that offers high rates, with glamping generally attracting a more premium target audience, Lars explained to the publication. Despite this, “in a direct comparison, it’s usually cheaper to build a glamping site than a hotel room,” Lars said to Publituris Hotelaria, meaning “it’s a good investment and the operating costs aren’t that high.”
There is, of course, a wide variety in maintenance needs and lifespan, with some “glamping units that last a lifetime,” Lars says in the article. “One of the brands we’re representing is designed to last at least forty years, in iron and stainless steel, something very stable.” On the other hand, “a bell tent, which you can buy on the market from five hundred euros, needs to be replaced every two, three or five years, depending on the quality of the canvas,” he explained to Publituris Hotelaria.
There are many considerations to make before starting a glamping site, but as Lars said to Publituris Hotelaria, “there will be more and more glamping. The market is growing, both in Portugal and worldwide”.
