Glamping has been hailed as a shaft of light for the Welsh tourism industry
Glamping Domes at Glamping Holiday in Wales - Snowdonia.
Swapping damp, windswept tents for the comfort of a heated pod, yurt, dome or Romany caravan is the new way the well-heeled choose to enjoy the best of the outdoors while preserving a little luxury.
Loved by eco-sensitive middle class professionals, glamping has become the a shaft of light for the troubled Welsh tourist industry.
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Chair of the Wales Tourism Alliance Chris Osborne said glamping was virtually unheard of before the recession, but operators who have moved into the sector are “very happy” with
Mr Osborne, who with wife Kath runs the Fourcroft Hotel, in Tenby, Pembrokeshire, said: “It’s probably the area where there has been the biggest change and the greatest increase of units available.
“But then it’s a relatively recent phenomenon. Whether it’s satisfying an apparently increasing demand, or the increased supply is increasing the demand, then it works.
“I guess at some stage in the future we’ll have too much and then it won’t be working as well.”
You can even stay in a plush Mongolian Ger at the Hay Festival
Fred's Yurts Mongolian Gers at Hay Festival
Mongolian gers at Hay Festival
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Lotus Belle Tents at Hay Festival
With wife Bethan farmer Pryderi Ap Rhisiart set up three domes on their 70-acre cattle and sheep farm Penfras Isaf, Pwllheli, five years ago.
The pods on his Llyn Peninsula farm include a double bed, two futons and a campfire.
The facilities, known as Away From It All, also boast a composting toilet.
Saturation point
The 33-year-old farmer, who moved into the business to diversify, believes the sector will eventually reach saturation point.
Mr Ap Rhisiart wants the quality of the experience maintained, rather than going down the route of caravan sites and squeezing in as many pitches per acre as possible.
He said: “We’re not looking to expand.
“We don’t want to overdevelop it with pitches popping up everywhere.”
Alongside sampling some of Wales’ most stunning countryside, holidaymakers, who tend to come from cities like Chester, Liverpool and Manchester, enjoy the chance to re-connect with nature and wildlife.
Families, who come mainly for two and three night stays, are invited to feed pigs, goats, sheep and collect their own eggs laid by chickens on the farm.
It’s an ethos that seems to chime with research findings on why families come to holiday in Wales.
15% increase in glamping
Statistics from the 2013 Wales Visitor Survey showed 69% rated the natural environment, landscape, countryside and beach as the main factor in choosing their holiday destination.
On the more than 100 UK sites it runs around the country the Camping and Caravanning Club has seen an increase of 15% in families holidaying in glamping yurts and pods etc over the last 12 months.
And with the arrival of a new Ready Camp network in February of 17 glamping sites around the UK, including one in Bala, further growth is expected.
Tim Rees, managing director of Welsh "glamping" agency Quality Unearthed, outside the Mongolian yurt he calls home
Tim Rees, managing director of Welsh "glamping" agency Quality Unearthed, outside the Mongolian yurt he calls home
The dreadlocked managing director who lives in a yurt and who uses meditation as a business aid
The Rhyd-y-Galen Caravan and Camping park in Bethel, Caernarfon, wants to replace six camping pitches with pods as well as creating new arrival pitches and siting 13 additional touring units on site.
The site suggested the pods would provide only basic shelter rather than going for the luxury end of the glamping market.
A growth area
But they still show how holiday firms regard glamping as a growth area.
Writer Jonathan Knight, who has chronicled the rise of glamping as a holiday trend, has said Wales’ rural nature makes it a UK hotspot for glampers.
Mr Knight, who runs the website Cool Camping, said: “What’s really exciting is people have embraced glamping as a totally new and interesting way to holiday. Holiday makers are looking for new experiences and enterprising landowners or people in the industry that perhaps own a B&B are embracing it as well.”
It's the one silver lining in the cloud that’s been raining almost incessantly on Welsh tourism.
Glamping – shorthand for glamorous camping – is the single growth area left for an industry that his spent its peak summer period battling a potent mixture of rain and recession.
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The trend has a growing following among both those looking to cut down on the cost of a fortnight’s sunshine in foreign climes and eco-sensitive middle-class professionals.
Jon Dale, a spokesman for the Camping and Caravanning Club of Great Britain, said the sector saw spend increase by 12% in 2011, while trips were 5% up.
Trading in windswept tents for heated “pods”, yurts, and mini Eden project style geodesic domes and Romany caravans, glampers go for holidays that take in the best of the outdoors while preserving basic luxuries.
Mr Dale said the trend took off after the start of the recession and shows no sign of dipping given the nation’s ongoing economic woes.
He said: “What appeals to the majority of people is that they (the pods) are already erected.
“People, particularly younger campers, can turn up on site and they don’t need to worry about putting up a tent – maybe they’ve come straight from work and they’ve got busy everyday lives.
“They can turn up put their airbed in there with a sleeping bag and it’s pretty much job done.”
Mr Dale said though 2011 was a buoyant year for caravanning and camping this season has been less lucrative because, as in every other sector of the UK tourism industry, the soaking wet summer reduced trade.
But Beth Hermitage, who runs West Wales Camping, says she started her business renting out pods on her 50-acre Plasbach farm in time for the summer and was fully booked throughout the school holidays despite the bad weather.
Ms Hermitage’s business is one of a number that have sprung up in Wales in recent years offering glamping trips to holidaymakers.
Insulated by sheep’s wool and shingles the farm’s three timber pods have electricity, pull-out beds and folding tables.
There is also a separate shower pod, a wooden chalet kitchen and composting toilets.
Ms Hermitage, 44, who runs the business near Whitland, Carmarthenshire, with mother Josie Thomas, 67, said the holidays have a definite appeal among eco-conscious, middle-class tourists.
The businesswoman, who has a suckler herd and keeps sheep, goats, pigs, horses and poultry, said: “A lot of people are interested in the environmental impact and the fact that we have sheep’s wool insulation and composting toilets – we’ve had a lot of people asking about that.
“We’ve had a lot of teachers as well and not just teachers with small children, but quite a lot of people just coming along as a couple because we thought during the summer holidays it would be people with children. But it wasn’t – it was a real mixture.”
Writer Jonathan Knight, who has chronicled the rise of glamping as a holiday trend, says Wales’ rural nature makes it a UK hotspot for glampers.
Mr Knight said when he first stayed at a glamping site in Pembrokeshire in 2006 it was “interesting and unique”.
He added: “Recently when I’ve been back there are glamp sites popping up all over the place and it’s not just teepees and yurts, it’s pods and geodesic domes.”
Author of the Glamping Getaways Mr Knight added: “What’s really exciting is that people have embraced glamping as a totally new and interesting way to holiday.
“Holiday makers are looking for new experiences and enterprising landowners or people in the industry that perhaps own a B&B are embracing it as well.
“They’re the kind of people that are driving it whereas previously the UK holiday industry was made up of big chain hotels. It’s the little people driving this renaissance.”
