GLORIOUS GLAMPING
Safari-style tent camps the rage
At one point in the mid-2010s, “glamping ” became a four-letter word. A sudden boom in upscale tented accommodations — which ultimately felt neither glamorous nor like camping — saw the trend go from boom to bust as quickly as spaghetti doughnuts and ramen burgers.
But now, glamping is back, and the glamour factor is through the canvas roof.
Everywhere from Luang Prabang to New South Wales, Tulum to Costa Rica — even in the heart of New York City, hoteliers are ditching bricks-and-mortar walls and ceilings for safari-style tents, many with free-standing bath tubs, fire- places, wood floors, and outdoor dual-head rain showers.
The concept has become so highend, “glamping ” no longer does it justice.
For travellers, the experience offers novelty, digital disconnection, and access to experiences that are at once authentic and Instagrammable (when you get back on WiFi). Think interacting with rescued elephants in northern Thailand at Four Season’s Golden Triangle tented camp or hot air ballooning over the Rocky Mountains from the Resort at Paws Up, in Montana.
“Kids love it — it’s great for multi-generational trips,” said Jack Ezon, president of Ovation Vacations. “It’s a completely different experience.”
He says clients come to him with tented properties on their bucket lists — or simply looking for something “different” and outdoorsy.
Just don’t expect these trips to come cheap.
“We’ve seen some of our tents going for US$5,000 a night,” said Luca Franco, founder and chief executive of Luxury Frontiers, a design firm and consultancy that specializes in ultra-high end tented camps such as Abu Camp and Eagle Island Lodge, two iconic properties in Botswana.
Among his upcoming projects: A One&Only resort in Riviera Nayarit, Mexico; a private island in the Maldives; and a tented village in Utah.
At all of them, guests will pay a premium to camp out under the stars. With butler service, of course.
When Franco got into the luxury tent business, the market was concentrated in Africa’s game parks.
“All I knew was that 50-70 per cent of the guests at the top-tier safari lodges in Africa were coming from the U.S.,” he said.
That signalled to him that the safari-style concept might have legs in other naturally pristine destinations.
“I saw a lot of demand and little supply,” Franco said.
And as the market for eco-sensitive and off-the-grid vacations has spiked, tented camps have benefited even more.
Franco and his contemporaries have converted that demand by thinking of these projects not just as fancy tents, but as conduits to unique experiences.
“We flip the concept of designing the box and filling it with activities,” he said. “Instead we design the activities first and then design the box around that.”
At the upcoming Shinta Mani Wild, on the border of Cambodia’s Cardamom National Park, guests will be able to eat at a restaurant tucked under a waterfall and zip line into the resort before sleeping off their adventures in Jackie O -inspired tents.
It opens this December.
At the One&Only in Riviera Nayarit, coming in 2020, guests will practically be able to roll out of their beds and onto a horse for sunset rides on a powdery beach.
And when it opens next fall, Nayara Tented Camp in Costa Rica will offer budding conservationists an up-close look at the country’s dwindling sloth population.
“I grew up as a kid going camping,” said Nayara’s owner and mastermind, Leo Ghitis. “At this stage in our lives, we like the nostalgia of camping but with all the conveniences and luxuries.”
At his property, that will mean hot springs-fed plunge pools on each private deck, interiors that fuse English and Spanish colonial styles, and closets so large that Paris Hilton could waltz in and feel right at home.
“The royal families of the Middle East typically have homes in ultraluxury tents — so clearly there is something to it.”
So why are they (mostly) great for business?
According to Franco, the master tent builder, hoteliers who invest in tented projects can expect to generate 20 to 40 per cent more in revenues than their six-star bricks-and-mortar counterparts, and construction costs can be up to 50 per cent less.
Even still, that doesn’t make these camps affordable or easy to build.
When one leading hospitality brand asked him to design a tent that could be replicated in Turkey, the Bahamas, Marrakesh, and Mexico, Franco said no: “All these places have different climates.”
Catering to varying weather patterns — plus consumers who might need family-friendly setup — can add up to a lot of costly customizations. As a result, Franco’s tents can cost between US$50,000 and US$1 million each.
Plus, exposure to the elements means they need to be carefully maintained and replaced every few years.