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MC Fireside Chats – October 2nd, 2024

Episode Summary

In the October 2, 2024 episode of MC Fireside Chats, host Brian Searl, founder and CEO of Insider Perks, led a dynamic discussion live from the Glamping Show Americas in Denver. The show featured a stellar lineup of industry leaders and experts from various parts of the world, all sharing their perspectives on the growing glamping industry and its international reach. The panel included recurring guests Mike Harrison from CRR Hospitality, Miguel Ángel Huerta Vallejo from the Mexican Glamping Association, Chris Jeub from Monument Glamping, and Greg Emmert from Camp Strategy. Special guests included Tomás Rodas Calderó from Ecuador’s Starwild Glamping, Jason Thawley of Tree Tent International, Joanna Reimann from FDomes in Poland, and a special appearance by William Clark from Fiji. The show began with each guest briefly introducing themselves. Mike Harrison from CRR Hospitality, which manages upscale luxury glamping and RV resorts, expressed his excitement about being part of the American Glamping Show again. He described the show as a “Christmas” for the glamping community, echoing sentiments from several panelists. Miguel Ángel Huerta Vallejo, representing the Mexican Glamping Association, also described the event as a significant annual gathering, akin to a holiday, filled with excitement and innovation for the glamping world. Greg Emmert, a consultant with Camp Strategy, shared his enthusiasm for the diverse range of attendees and vendors from across the globe. Newcomer Jason Thawley, the founder of Tree Tent International, introduced his company’s unique suspended tree structures, which were being shown for the first time at the U.S. glamping show. Thawley expressed gratitude for the warm welcome his company received in the American market, noting that the U.S. glamping industry is highly organized, with business owners who have done their research and understand the market. He compared the U.S. show favorably to the UK glamping show, which he said doesn’t quite capture the same energy and diversity. Joanna Reimann from FDomes in Poland discussed the growth of her company and how their innovative geodesic domes have become popular worldwide, especially in the U.S. market. She shared that this was the third year in a row her company was exhibiting at the glamping show, and they were once again premiering new products, including a new camping tent and outdoor furniture line. Joanna spoke about FDomes’ dedication to supporting their clients throughout the entire process of setting up a glamping operation, emphasizing the importance of educating people about what glamping is, especially in countries like Poland, where the concept is still relatively new. Chris Jeub, the self-proclaimed “Glamping Guy,” shared his experiences operating a glamping site in Colorado. He reflected on the rapid growth of the industry, noting how five years ago, glamping was a term he had to explain to everyone. Today, glamping has exploded into a creative, dynamic industry with a wide variety of accommodation types, from domes to treehouses, container homes, and even buses. Chris emphasized the importance of creativity and flexibility in the glamping industry, as operators continue to innovate and create unique guest experiences. He also teased his upcoming educational course, “Easy Entry to Glamping Business,” which he plans to offer internationally to help aspiring glamping operators get started. The conversation then turned to Tomás Rodas Calderó from Ecuador’s Starwild Glamping, who shared insights about the emerging glamping market in Ecuador and other parts of Latin America. He explained that while the glamping industry in Ecuador is still in its infancy, there has been significant growth in recent years. Tomás described how his company has seen domes being used for a wide range of purposes, not just for glamping but also for schools, designer stores, and even churches. He noted that Ecuador’s more relaxed zoning laws for rural areas make it easier to establish glamping operations, offering significant potential for growth. However, he also pointed out that there is still a need for better business planning and operational expertise in the region, which presents an opportunity for development. Miguel Ángel Huerta Vallejo highlighted the diversity of the attendees at the show, particularly the growing number of Latino and Latin American participants. He praised the inclusive atmosphere of the event and shared his thoughts on the evolution of the glamping industry in Mexico. He discussed how recent regulations in Mexico, such as limits on Airbnb rentals, are driving developers to invest in glamping sites instead. This shift, he said, will further boost the popularity of glamping in Mexico, especially in areas like the Firefly Sanctuary near Mexico City, where local guides and workers are now able to remain employed year-round thanks to glamping operations. A significant part of the discussion focused on the international expansion of glamping. The panelists explored how glamping has evolved in different countries, including challenges like regulatory hurdles, land use, and zoning laws. Chris Jeub and Greg Emmert discussed how U.S. states are beginning to embrace more flexible land-use laws, particularly with regards to accessory dwelling units (ADUs), which could help further the expansion of glamping operations. Greg Emmert pointed out that the glamping show has provided a platform for innovation, noting that some of the prices for glamping units have adjusted to more reasonable levels, making it easier for operators to build financially sustainable businesses. The conversation then touched on the global growth of glamping associations. Miguel Ángel Huerta shared his excitement about the Mexican Glamping Association’s progress and how other countries have expressed interest in creating their own associations. He joked about the possibility of a “Confederation of Glamping Associations” in the future but emphasized that the growing number of organizations dedicated to glamping reflects the industry’s increasing international appeal. At this point, William Clark from Fiji posed an important question about the possibility of forming an international glamping association. He highlighted how an international organization could help link the various national associations and provide a platform for sharing information, resources, and best practices. The panelists agreed that while forming a global association would be challenging due to the vast differences in regulations and market conditions across countries, there is immense value in fostering better communication and collaboration between existing national organizations. The discussion also touched on labor and staffing challenges in rural and remote areas. Mike Harrison pointed out that while staffing has been a challenge for many hospitality operators, the glamping industry provides a unique opportunity to foster a sense of community and connection. He emphasized that passion, drive, and a love for hospitality are more important than formal education in succeeding in this industry. Miguel Ángel Huerta noted that in Latin America, labor costs are lower, and workers often live near the glamping sites, which can add a personal touch to the guest experience. To wrap up the episode, Brian Searl asked the panelists to share their thoughts on how to inspire passion for hospitality in staff and employees. Mike Harrison responded that while passion cannot be taught, it can be inspired through leadership and fostering a culture of enthusiasm for hospitality. He emphasized the importance of education and creating opportunities for learning, whether through in-person events like the glamping show or online resources like the American Glamping University, which offers comprehensive courses on setting up and running glamping operations. The episode concluded with a sense of excitement about the future of the glamping industry, both in the U.S. and internationally. The panelists expressed optimism about the continued growth of glamping as a global phenomenon, driven by innovation, creativity, and a shared passion for providing unique, memorable outdoor experiences. The glamping show, with its diverse array of products and ideas, was described as a hub of inspiration and networking, bringing together people from all corners of the world to share their knowledge and passion for this rapidly evolving industry.

Recurring Guests

A man in a plaid shirt smiling in front of a stone wall during the MC Fireside Chats on March 6th, 2024.
Mike Harrison
Chief Operating Officer
CRR Hospitality
A man smiling in front of an RV during Fireside Chats.
Greg Emmert
Co-Founder
Camp Strategy
Miguel Ángel Huerta Vallejo
CEO
Nantli Living
A man with a beard smiling for the camera during the MC Fireside Chats on October 11th, 2023.
Chris Jeub
Owner
Monument Glamping

Special Guests

Joanna Reimann
Sales Director
FDomes
An image of a person in a circle, featured in an episode.
Jason Thawley
Founder
Tree Tents UK
An image of a person in a circle, featured in an episode.
Tomás Rodas Calderó
Founder
Starwild Glamping

Episode Transcript

This is MC Fireside Chats, a weekly show featuring conversations with thought leaders, entrepreneurs, and outdoor hospitality experts who share their insights to help your business succeed. Hosted by Brian Searle, the founder and CEO of Insider Perks, empowered by insights from Modern Campground, the most innovative news source in the industry.

Brian Searl: with Insider Perks, and we are excited to be here at the American Glamping Show in Denver, Aurora, Colorado, wherever we’re at. Is it Denver? It’s close to Denver. Live! Oh, we’re live every week, Mike. Well, you gotta throw this in there, man. You gotta throw me off my intro. I had this whole thing planned. It was going to be wonderful. I had it scripted. I practiced in here this morning. Anyway, super excited to be here at the glamping show, uh, with a bunch of our regular recurring guests, Mike Harrison, uh, McGuire hair from the American Mexican glamping association. Uh, Greg Emmer is here. And then we have some special guests as well. Chris cube is a return guest as well. So I’m gonna let, uh, I’m gonna pass around the mic here and we’ll let everybody just briefly introduce themselves. Mike, you’ve got one. I think we can, if you guys can’t hear us, let us know, but just keep it kind of pointed at whoever’s.

Mike Harrison: Hi, welcome to Denver. This is Mike Harrison with CRR Hospitality. We own and manage luxury upscale glamping and RV resorts, and we’re excited to be participating in the American Glamping Conference again.

Brian Searl: Awesome. Thanks for being here, Mike. I’ll just pass mine over to Miguel.

Miguel Ángel Huerta Vallejo: Hello, everybody. This is Miguel from the Mexican Lamping Association. And it feels so good to be back. You know, this is like the Christmas for the glampers, you know, or like Thanksgiving because, well, we don’t celebrate Thanksgiving in Mexico, but I guess that it’s like that.

Greg Emmert: Hi, everyone. Greg Emmert from Camp Strategy. We are a consulting group that can help end to end with folks building glamping or camping properties and excited to be here in Colorado with everybody. Yeah, it is very much like Thanksgiving or Christmas for the glamping community. So thanks for having us on.

Jason Thawley: Thank you. Hi, my name is Jason Thorley, and this is our first visit to the US or showing at the US Glamping Show this year. And my company is called Tree Tents International. And we sort of create and make suspended structures. So structures that hang in the trees, really. So yeah, check us out. Nice to be here.

Chris Jeub: Hey, I’m Chris Jeub, the glamping guy. I’m kind of tired. This has been a wonderful, wonderful couple of days here in Colorado. My operation is just south of here at Monument Glamping. And yeah, I’m just loving this time. It is like Christmas.

Tomás Rodas Calderón: Well, hello, everybody. My name is Tomas. I’m from Ecuador. We’re at Starweb Glamping. It’s our first time here as exhibitors and it’s my third time as a visitor. So for me, it’s like a dream come true being here.

Brian Searl: So I know we want to focus a little bit during the show on international. That’s kind of one of the main focuses here is to talk about the international vendors, maybe the glamping scene overall, how it looks overseas in your respective countries, things like that. Before we get there, I do want to just start by talking about the glamping show overall, right? I think this, for me, is one of the most exciting shows that I come to every year. I think everybody will probably agree. We already heard Christmas, right? I don’t know if it gets better than that. But it’s just so interesting. Lisa, I think you were saying, and Lisa is our camera person running behind the scenes, you can’t see her. When she was talking to me about how there’s just so many new people, it’s almost like a good kind of turnover here every year. That’s so many new people who are interested in developing and getting into glamping or just walking around and they’re all happy and excited and ambitious. And like, it’s just a different feel from a typical conference. And that’s not a slight on a typical conference, but it’s just different. And they all just like they pack in the vendor booth halls. They all sit in the, in the education sessions and they all just stay and they network and drink and have taco tuesdays and all the things and it’s just a really friendly atmosphere and so i’m happy and excited to be a part of that i think this is i don’t know if it’s better attended than it has been but it’s for sure is very close if not numbers are far higher are they okay i haven’t heard anything yet but yeah turnover or increase in 50% increase okay yeah that’s true now the exhibitors right so they have that huge outdoor tent over there that we don’t have yeah I completely forgot about that so but anyway so maybe just uh we’ll pass around the mic and give your thoughts and feelings maybe a little bit about like we did about the glamping show last year what’s some education that you’ve seen some people you’ve experienced vendors that you’ve talked to you’re seeing just something that’s

Mike Harrison: Absolutely. Thank you. And I think, you know, what’s impressed me is, I know this topic is about international, but I love the diversity of the different types of glamping products and clientele and customers and vendors that are from all over, not just the country, but the world. Whether it’s the Mexican Glamping Association or, you know, the F-Domes in Poland, it’s just great to see such an international presence here, which is exciting. You know, the glamping industry, as we know, started in England, and then kind of transitioned over here and it’s really exploded and boomed in america and continues to morph and evolve into many many different things and you know we have the discussion all the time about what is glamping and glamping could be many different things whether it’s two units or 30 units or a full-blown resort or in an rv resort that continues to get redefined as the glamping industry continues to evolve partnerships with hyatt and hilton with some of the major brands has also started to expand it so I think it’s been a very exciting show. As Brian mentioned, the vibe here is just awesome. It feels like glamping. It’s casual. It’s relaxed. It’s outdoorsy. It’s just, it’s much better here than in a typical conference hall. So excited to see what continues to happen.

Brian Searl: So I want to make sure we continue here in a second. Joanne popped in here a little bit late. By the way, you were talking about before the show, and I don’t know if they can hear me on that Microphone in the room. I’ll just talk a little bit louder, but you were talking about Iceland and how this dome that we’re in right now. Lisa, did you get good pictures of this? Because Joanna’s truly going to talk about it in a second. But this dome that we’re in, it’s on negative 40 Celsius, and you’re trying to find it in Iceland. Yeah. I’ll eventually buy one, because Iceland’s my favorite country. I went on a vacation last year, I think it was. It feels like so long ago. But just everywhere you look, I don’t know if you’ve been, but everywhere you look, Iceland.

Joanna Reimann: So it’s super exciting to be a part of that.

Brian Searl: But please, introduce yourself. Tell us what happened.

Joanna Reimann: Yeah, sure. Well, the dome we are in at the moment, it’s like this for permanent, I would say, use. So they are located all over the world. And yeah, as you mentioned, Iceland is one of our countries that we delivered to. But there is also North Pole and there are like countries that have very rigid climates from very cold to very hot to very windy. And due to the shape and the fact that the structure is actually customized and adjusted for the client, each client separately. They do great in any weather conditions. And basically, when even walking around the show, and I would just refer to what you have just said about the show, I love this place. And being a part of the glamping show and the glamping community, like being here the third time in a row. For us, like we came from Poland, so for us, it was just getting into the American glamping industry was a bit harder because we didn’t know people here in the industry. And we could see how people commute, how you guys know each other, how you exchange your ideas. So now being here the third year in a row and kind of become the part of this community and getting like the manufacturer of the year from the Glamping Association, It’s like very rewarding and it’s like we really enjoy being here with the domes and with the tent and with the chairs with everything like we introduced and we it’s the second year in a row we actually make a premiere of our new products in the US. We wait with all the premieres we start for the glamping show. So last year was a sliding door, the new insulation, this year there is a new camping tent, there is the outdoor line of the outdoor furniture, And we do not showcase it until the glamping show, because we respect the show and we love the show so much that we just wait to start the premiering in the glamping show. So yeah, that’s amazing.

Brian Searl: So tell us where we’re sitting in real quick, just give us kind of a setting of the dome and

Joanna Reimann: Well, actually, this is one of the smallest sizes that we recommend for couples retreats. So it’s a 300 square feet, which is 30 square meters for those who do the metric. And it’s with the reinforced frame, with the standard insulation layer, with the skylight window that can be covered and uncovered depending on your needs and temperature. And we are sitting on the chairs that we manufacture, which are done from, and now this is for the new word I learned in American, the pronunciation, aluminum. Yeah, this is the right pronunciation. Yeah, perfect. So yeah, so they’re very light and rust free and they will like, you know, can be exposed to the sun and to any weather conditions. Oh, yeah. Of course, we have here the options of upgrading the size and the add-ons, but the dome we are at at the moment is like the couple-sized dome that can be with the bathroom additionally, or without if people want to build it themselves.

Brian Searl: Perfect. Thank you. I want to go back to Miguel here and then go around there. We were just talking about some of the benefits here, some of the things that have impressed you about the Glamping show so far.

Miguel Ángel Huerta Vallejo: I think that the glamping show always feels like home, and that happened to me ever since the first time that I visited. To me, being able to be with you guys, to be told you’re the leaders of the industry, and it doesn’t feel like that. I was talking to Brian the other day about that. feels like friends being friends which i think that it’s great that’s number one two uh it’s so diverse and we’re like getting this push and doing it in spanish uh maybe we get to see that uh i’m and for example in nike that i’ve been to other conferences for a different industry in here in the states uh it’s overwhelming to see that at least a fourth I would say that 25% of the attendees are either Latino or Latino descent, you know? So, of course, like, I mean, you can always polish your Spanish while you’re here, or English, you know, like all the minimum. To me, I think that we have to recognize David as well. Him putting the show together now that he is on probably one of his last shows. I think that is a great legacy that he has left behind. And, well, maybe next year we need a new setup, you know, and do it live and see the people that follow us, because there have been people that have told me, hey, I’ve seen you in one of the podcasts, so it feels just great.

Greg Emmert: Yeah, and I think to dovetail off of what Mike and Miguel just said, every conference has its own pulse and rhythm and crowd. This crowd is very different from others, and it’s just so diverse, but there’s so many dreamers and people here with amazing ideas that you can see it’s about to hatch. That’s really interesting. I think from the consultant side, like when we advise our clients on maybe how many units to put in or what type of units to put in, one of the barriers that we’ve seen the last few years is obviously construction costs, not just the infrastructure, the things in the ground, but also the units themselves. This year, there’s actually, and maybe somebody else can back me up on this, but I feel like some of the price points have adjusted on some of these and I’m seeing some that make maybe a little more sense financially, because for some of these really high-end luxurious ones, if you’re north where you’re only going to get a six-month season, that’s tough to make work on a business plan. If you’ve got to try to return… It’s a $200,000 unit and you can only rent it six months, that’s difficult. If you’re a Florida park or you’re in Arizona, maybe that’s a little easier. But even they have You know, they’ve got high and low seasons as well. So, um, seeing some of the, the unit costs, maybe starting to finally feel the markets and come down. I just, that’s been really nice and nice surprise. And then if the people from new book are watching, I have to tell you, putting a barista in your booth, brilliant. I am jacked up right now. So I’m probably talking five times faster than I should be, but to be able to get a double espresso at a booth was fantastic. And so I was in their booth listening to the product pitch, completely jacked up. So great idea. Anybody out there, put a barista in your booth.

Brian Searl: Does that help you remember it more or less though, if you’re jacked up?

Greg Emmert: Yes to all. Okay. I don’t know if that makes sense, but yeah, that’s what’s happening.

Jason Thawley: Great, thanks. Yeah, I mean, about the show, I think we’ve been over in the UK in the glamping business for probably near on 15 years now. We’re right from its infancy. I can remember designing our first product and having it up on our website. We hadn’t even made it. And I got a call off a TV production company which Was filming the first series of a show called George Clark’s amazing spaces. I don’t know if anyone’s ever seen that but basically following the new emerging trends in the glamping industry or just like tiny house builders and I sort of managed to black my way on today. They said hey, I love your tree tank. Can you come and film it? And I was like, yeah, okay So, you know, we put the phone down we built it we got it out there and you know we slowly built a business over that but In terms of shows over in the UK, nothing touches this really. It’s so great to be here and the sense of community with everybody and everyone’s so welcoming. It’s quite nervous for us as a UK company coming over here, showing something a bit different and trying to feel everyone’s feedback from that, but it’s just been really nice to be here. I visited last year without the product just to get a feel for it all. And I think. The American market just seems to be a lot more organized and a lot more business-led in a way. They know what they want. They’ve done their research. They know the price point. They know their market demographic. It’s really nice to speak to people with that already sorted out with them. We’re not trying to have to explain all this to them. They know what’s going to work. I find the inquiries a lot more serious here. It’s just really nice to be here.

Brian Searl: What would you say, have you been to the UK glamping show?

Jason Thawley: So yeah, we have a few shows in the UK. We have a big one that’s in September, right? Yeah, yeah, that’s right. Yeah. You know, it’s a bit hit and miss that show. Like, so the year, not this year, the year before, you know, we had a good range of people, but I think it’s the diversity of product. that we see there and you know you’d think you guys being probably as you said a little bit behind the UK market but you know The range of stuff here and the quality of the conferencing and the talks that are on offer is just miles ahead of what we have over there in the UK. Not to you know, the UK show’s great, it’s run nice, but there just doesn’t seem to be that sort of vibe.

Joanna Reimann: We attended several times the Glancing Show UK at the Firm Business Innovation.

Jason Thawley: Yes, yeah, we’ve done that one too.

Joanna Reimann: Yeah, and we stopped two years ago. We just focused on the U.S. market and the U.S. fight and the knowledge. And I think that actually, even though the U.K. started the glamping, I think that the U.S. is now running the first place position. I think so. I think that the U.K. is left behind due to, as well, the lamp limitations. Like you just run out of land for glamping. That’s very true. You just put these cabins next to each other and still the UK has this land, the open space, and I think that this is what made them the first place.

Jason Thawley: Also, I think yesterday was so busy and we’ve had so many international visitors here to our stand as well. It’s not just the Americans coming to visit but for their market. You’re getting international people coming here because this is a show to be at.

Joanna Reimann: Exactly. I was so surprised so many people were flying from all over the world I was like I thought we are like the exception like flying from Poland but no they are like people flying from over the world like the South America like people speaking Spanish like you know it’s like once in a year I speak Spanish and it’s here so not only English but it’s amazing yeah how how diverse it is.

Chris Jeub: proud to be an american oh that’s that’s wonderful gosh i guess i’m the local one here but uh um yeah this this glamping show has been fantastic i this is my fourth glamping show in a row And of course, I just live an hour away, so it’s real easy for me to do. But I want to really speak to the people who are maybe watching. I know a lot of people who skip out on that big show. American glamping operators, that’s really what glamping guy is for, is for the individual operator, landowner, developing their glamping operation on their private property. And they sometimes skip out. I debuted with a class last year and I had 14 students, kind of high-end class, but 14 students and five of them ended up, which actually I think is not that bad because it’s an expense. You have to pay for a flight. You got to get a hotel and stuff. I have one of the students who’s staying down with me on my property and stuff. So that’s all fine and good. So it is an expense. But one third of them came here and they are ecstatic about how how nice it is. They’re learning so much. They’re consuming so much information. They’re learning so much from so many vendors over a year. It’s like their mouth is friendly planted against a fire hose and they’re going to go home with a stack of business cards and handouts and connections and hopefully new friends to follow up with. I know I am, like I do every year when I come here.

Tomás Rodas Calderón: Oh, well for us, it’s been a whole adventure. We’ve been preparing for this show like for the whole year We are mainly focused in central america and south america. We have an office in san jose costa rica and also one in ecuador that covers south america And it’s been crazy. Like uh, we have seen this show marketed so well With i10s marketing on South America area and also the Central America and we have customers from us that are that came to the glamping show and we stop each other like we’re both from from Ecuador so. it’s really great to see that people is eager to learn more to find more diversity on suppliers being a structure suppliers or also service suppliers like the latin american market for service suppliers for the glamping industry is just developing is really going big like the zoning and permits in south america is much more friendly than in the States. So we have seen people that are eager to know about more and to learn how to run things well and have the correct services, correct business plan to know how to manage the property. So it’s been great. It’s been like a dream come true, like I said, and I’ve been enjoying it a lot. It’s crazy how much little time we have to put together our structures and the same to dismantle, but I think it’s part of it. So really happy.

Brian Searl: So I know we want to talk a little bit about international, right? And we really kind of had a little bit of a focus on the topic of it, but we didn’t flesh it out fully. So I would love to have you guys kind of lead this and take it where you want. You’re all from different countries except for the American over there. I’m kidding. I’m also an American. I just live in Canada. But I’d love for you guys to just take it in the direction of almost like a compare notes thing I think would be interesting. for you guys to what is the state of glamping in your country what you know and obviously glamping is a buzzword that i’m scott bayer from karen consulting was walking around with a camera his son was to you know tell me what your definition of glamping is we’ve talked about this on the show many times before there isn’t really one right so even beyond glamping like luxury camping uh you know tree houses yurts tents like just what is the history of that in your country and then we’ll see where the conversation takes us do you want to start first tomorrow

Tomás Rodas Calderón: Also, I mentioned we started business five years and a half. We are like the only one and there’s just another small company that distribute glamping structures. They are manufacturers and we are importers and we have seen how the market of glamping has developed a lot in our country, not only for glamping sites or for Airbnb, but people use our structures for much more diverse functionalities such as a school. For example, we have a full school made In the northern part of ecuador. It’s called mine school that it’s fully done on domes, uh eight meter diameter dome and 10 meter diameter dome so that’s like really impressive to see that uh people has uh evolved and seen uh a glamping structure not only for dwelling but uh for having a commercial purpose We also have designers stores made in a dome. So it’s been crazy. We have a church that is done in a dome tent, 20 meter diameter. So it’s 314 square meters or 900 square feet. I don’t know if I’m correct. But yeah, so, uh, it has evolved a lot and that is something that well we have been seeing, uh in a while Uh, but yeah, like I mean like in the service thing about uh running a glamping That’s something that our country is missing or lacking. So I see great opportunity in that. Uh, and also we have seen uh, like the opportunity to bring up like a ota, uh, like booking or expedia, but for glamping like in ecuador we have hundreds of them and people are looking to find the right way to choose your glamping so in the service area we see like many possible developments that can lead to a much more mature industry.

Brian Searl: So sorry one question about ecuador real quick um so i know like if you look at the all the land that we’ve talked about that people are developing glamping sites on in america and canada it’s just so vast right uh we have this perception of when you want to start a glamping operation in a rural area that it’s difficult right is it more difficult in a less widely developed country like Ecuador without all the, or is that my perception is completely wrong of Ecuador? I’ve never been.

Tomás Rodas Calderón: So it’s easier. Uh, like you have, uh, electricity, water, like your services are rural is what I mean, like out in the middle of not near a city. Uh, it’s easier to get the permits like rural permits in our region are not that hard to get because there are not uh, The laws are not things for a structure like this. They are like completely innovative So what we have seen and it may be a problem in some time is like not being regulated like you can do it, you can develop the structure and even we have customers that have some zoning issues and look for us for being removable structures. So being removable structure is much easier to do the permits and start your business. So we see that as an advantage and we have take out some business from the traditional construction and people is starting to use our structures as a solution for their permit solving and stuff like that.

Brian Searl: Who wants to go next?

Chris Jeub: Are we doing international?

Brian Searl: Well, I mean, I’m from Canada, so technically you are international, right?

Chris Jeub: Well, I just wanted to say that.

Brian Searl: I mean, I think it would be interesting for you, maybe Chris, to talk about, like you have Glamping Guy, you do consulting, right? For people who are interested here. Is there ever a time where you would expand internationally and talk to people who are developing?

Chris Jeub: Heck yeah. Yeah, that’d be awesome. I mean, I would love that. In America, I think the, I don’t know if this is any different internationally, but the traditional glamping unit would be the safari tent. I call them an outfitter’s tent because I started out with a hunting tent. That was my story of setting up my hunting tent and renting it out on Airbnb and making a lot of money. It turned out to be a really nice and nice thing. I would say five years ago when I started, glamping was something I needed to explain to people, even to planning departments, even to building inspectors and things like that. They just didn’t get it. But now it’s exploded. It’s just been an explosion of creativity. And now we have different, well, we’re in a dome for crying out loud. And that wasn’t even a thing, I think, five years ago. I mean, now they’re all over in glamping operations. And tree houses, and we have schoolies, and buses, and gosh, what else? Container homes. We’re big into container homes. It’s just the atmosphere of creativity in the glamping community. I mean, I can’t think of a more creative market. It’s artistic. boom that is going on when it comes to, oh, and you know what? In America, the states and the counties and especially the states are really catching on. Certain ADU, like additional or auxiliary dwelling unit laws are really becoming more acceptable for even townhomes being allowing ADUs on their property. And then if it’s glamping like a glove. So it’s exciting. It’s an exciting time to be in such a dynamic and creative market.

Brian Searl: How do you think, Chris, just one more question, how do you think we solve that education? Like here we have this huge show that some people are well enough off of to come from across the world, right? Not everybody can buy a $3,000 plane ticket and come here and have the accommodation. How do we reach people in international markets who want to have… because obviously, they have this passion. We have people here from all over the world, right? How do we reach those people with the education they need to learn about how to get started, how to achieve their dreams, how to I mean, how would you do that if you had the opportunity to do that?

Chris Jeub: Well, I, by golly Brian, I do have the opportunity to do that. I love teaching. I love to teach. I was a public school teacher. I love teaching to do glamping full time. And now it’s kind of coming back. Once a teacher is always a teacher and teachers know that I think all teachers should be at a glamping because it’s a, it’s just a, you’re, you’re, you’re constantly educated people who are coming through your venues. Uh, but I, I’m offering a free course on the 21st of October. That’s free internationally. And it’s called the easy entry to a glamping business. And that’s how we decided. We just keep talking about it, keep living it.

Brian Searl: But only in English. We need you to learn more languages.

Chris Jeub: It is only in English, I know. Now it’s going to be in Polish. No, I’m just kidding.

Jason Thawley: It’s interesting what you were saying about the new laws about treating these buildings as these buildings are. I think in the UK something that’s always been an issue is in terms of, we call it planning permission in the UK. if you want to do a development of this sort of thing of domes or yurts or sort of semi-temporary accommodation like this, it goes through the same process but you would have to go through the same council as if you were building a house. Residential, big commercial things, it all feeds through the same thing and has to abide by the same laws. which can just get ridiculous when, you know, we don’t have to have the same insulation thickness in a small, tiny home that doesn’t take much heat input and is probably going to be used seasonally, but to get past this permission because we’re having to compete against it.

Chris Jeub: Yeah, you know what, this is a fascinating time in American history for, if I can just interrupt you a little bit, because what’s going through America is a revolution of land use law. And very specifically, what happened in Colorado this last May is it was signed into law that the state is forcing municipalities and towns to adopt ADU laws, because there’s been a tendency for the small towns to restrict ADUs on private property, and much like an HOA, kind of like a townwide HOA, homeowners association, and And now the state governments, because we are in the housing crisis, it costs a lot of money to live out in the West in America. It’s out of reach for most people. And so one way of solving that is to liberalize local municipality laws and regulations that keep people from buying property. So it actually empowers the small The small dog can be the fat cat for once and actually rent out part of their property with ADUs. And that’s glamping, really.

Jason Thawley: Yeah. I mean, it’s one of those things, isn’t it, where you don’t want people to go too far with it and sort of, you know… Kind of protectionist kind of mentality.

Chris Jeub: We don’t want expansion of housing. but there’s a lack of housing.

Jason Thawley: When these problems can be solved. Like that. Exactly. Yeah. And also I think, you know, one of the things that we really are sort of quite big on in the UK in terms of people setting up new glamping operations is that, you know, we have a housing crisis, but we also have a hell of a lot of second homes. use in third homes. So people will be living in London and then over in these sort of nicer sort of holiday areas, Devon, Cornwall, Wales, they’ll have a second home, but they’ll be empty loads of the year. So that’s not feeding back into that local community. It’s driving up house prices for the younger people who can’t afford to stay and live in their locality as much as they’d like to. So, you know, I think these structures have this, you know, they solve a tourism accommodation issue without breaking into housing stock. And that’s really important. It also brings more tourism into the area in a very low impact way, which then helps local communities, sort of the local village host office or the local village pub who, you know, local businesses love it.

SPEAKER_00: Exactly. Yeah.

Jason Thawley: So, you know, I really do think that in the UK, we need something like this, but they need to just see this as a different thing and come up with a new solution for people to being able to open up new businesses, get permits and licenses to have these sorts of structures on their land.

Joanna Reimann: Oh, I don’t know where to start. First of all, I agree with Chris that once a teacher, always a teacher. So we’ve been there, done that. We have this approach with FDOMS that we do not only sell DOMS. And I think this is crucial that manufacturers also build the awareness of Glamping at their own countries and worldwide. We have delivered like 7,000 DOMS all around the world. Like US, it’s like the half of our sale. but we have all Europe, Latin America, Central America, like Japan. So building the awareness, we even have like these two lines of marketing, like one is the sales marketing, and the second one is building the awareness. So to teach people, because in Poland, actually, glamping is a totally new term. So people just crawl in this kind of area. So we are helping them out, teaching them what glamping is, what are the assets. We are kind of advisors, because there are no such people like you, Chris, in Poland, who just advise on glamping and help people with permissions. It’s still a new concept. So we feel responsible to teach people what glamping is and how to do it. And also, throughout the process, we never kind of focus. I know it sounds funny, being a manufacturer and a sales director saying this, but we don’t really focus on sale. Like we kind of focus on supporting the clients throughout the process. And as you know, these processes can take two weeks because I did have clients who were buying like 10 doms in a week. But I have clients who are coming back to me after three years, four years with the permissions. But throughout these three years or four years, we are all the time in touch. We have our engineers sending the engineering files. We have architects sending the drawings. We advise them on the land. We send them the deck plans. So we do everything to make this process easier for them and for their engineering offices, make it easier and faster. And I think it’s also a huge responsibility of each supplier to kind of think outside the box of only selling. it’s just like building the relationship and supporting because it will turn out to be like you know the community we are creating and I think it should be like in all countries like in Poland as I said it’s just the beginning so we are kind of pioneers in like manufacturing but also teaching people what glamping is.

Greg Emmert: I feel like we should pass down to Miguel because he was I know you had something you wanted to share.

Miguel Ángel Huerta Vallejo: No, no. Well, on my side, I just wanted to share it. I was thinking about all the comments that you just made, but to me, it has been impressive. This, uh, glamping show, uh, not only the number of attendees that are international, but the number of people that they want to take, um, the category in their hands. And what do I mean by this? The Mexican Lamping Association, we have a booth during the show and so many people have reached out and tell us like, okay, you’re doing something great. I’m going to start the the The category is going international. That’s number one. Number two, um, for example, in Mexico, they just pass a law where they’re like putting a cap on the number of nights for a property to be able to be sold on Airbnb, you know? So, um, I was talking with one of the largest developers in the Mayan Riviera, which is one of the hotspots for tourism in the world. And what he was saying is that he’s foreseeing that a lot of the investment that we’ll use to go to vacation rentals, like departments and those type of things, will go to glamping sites. And I think that it makes sense. Now, Brian was asking a little bit before, like, how does it go when you’re on the glamping site in a remote rural area. And at least in Latin America, since labor is not as expensive as in other places, I think that it’s a breeze and you have more of a personal touch because you have people living in there full-time, that’s number one. Two, What I love is that, for example, in Mexico we have the Firefly Sanctuary. It’s a forest that during the rainy season, two hours away from Mexico City, over 60,000 people visit that part. And then the season came to an end and some of the guides, they will go back to being masons or to like migrate to Mexico City, you know, and by having glamping sites in there, they’re finding a way in which they can find, well, keep being in the tourism industry, being able to serve, do what they love. And I, to me, I love like, for example, like cryptocurrencies, you know, And I think that tourism is getting decentralized by glamping as well, because our category was enabled largely because now, for example, you can have a internet anywhere. You go viral with a property that maybe back in the day you will need to have to be in the traditional media that was more costly. So I think that it’s going to get uh, even more diverse, even more international. And we’re going to see, uh, some brands, um, that are leaders in certain countries going into other countries. So, so yeah, I mean, to me, I think that even if this is not the international show, maybe next year, uh, will be the international show. So, so it’s growing like crazy. It’s, it’s amazing.

Brian Searl: I think it’s interesting, Miguel, and if I’m not representing what you’re trying to say, let me know, right? But when you talked about the rural areas and it being easier to find people who would work there, right? Is that what you’re saying? I think that kind of resonates with me. I just came back from a trip to the Philippines. And we went to these beautiful, amazing resorts with clear water. But there was one on this tiny island called Similian Island, and the workers all lived on the island. They were right there. And so obviously, just like a person who’s a host of an RV resort or something like that, you don’t want to be bothered all the time, of course. But they were still right there, and it was easy because, I don’t know if it’s, they’re not as spread out, but they’re just, They live everywhere, if that makes sense, right? And so I think in that regard, is that what you’re trying to say? I think it’s easier?

Miguel Ángel Huerta Vallejo: Yeah, I mean, of course, it has the challenges, because at the end you have to train them. Sure, they do this out of a passion. They didn’t go to a hot lyric school or something where Chris can translate his classes with some AI tools. But I think that this year we’re also seeing a lot of AI capabilities as well. But I think that we’re going to see that these remote places are strengthened and they are more appealing because of glamping, that’s number one. And two, those people, I always say that our industry will not get as disrupted as other industries. Because at the end, sure, you’re paying for the human touch. Maybe you don’t want them to be all day, but at the end you want to ask them, okay, what’s interesting here that they cook for you? Stuff like that. So yeah, definitely. The other thing that I already talked with one of the major leaders for the category here in the States, I was telling him that, okay, maybe you have a lack of skilled labor for glamping sites, because I remember from one of the conferences that operations is to run the business is one of the main issues for the industry to grow as a whole. Maybe we can send you a couple of people over here that they are already and that they already know how to run a glamping place, that they will love to have this type of opportunities. And at the end, I think that the category is going to keep on growing. And yeah, it’s amazing.

Brian Searl: I want to go to you in a sec, Craig, but I want to ask Mike about something real quick. I guess I could just pass my mic to him, right? But, um, so Mike, I’m curious and I’m kind of putting you on the spot here. It’s not a question I normally ask you, right. But from a employment standpoint, like we’re talking about with Miguel, uh, we’ve had some conversations where if you had the right opportunity, there would be a interest perhaps in expanding to Mexico and around here. Right. But for you, like, as you look at, especially over the COVID years, all the staffing issues out in the industry, as you look at, I think it’s fair to say that there’s a trend toward less people perhaps having college degrees in the areas that would benefit us in hospitality is that there were five or six years ago, right?

Mike Harrison: Yeah. I mean, I think, uh, I don’t really even think that’s a consideration. I remember, you know, I, I speak at, uh, University of Massachusetts. I speak at Arizona state to the tourism departments. And one of the things that I talked to is that, and they’re in there for a hospitality degree, but one of the things that I say about the hospitality, uh, industry is you don’t need a master’s, a bachelor’s or doctorate to succeed in this industry. You need heart, right? You need drive, you need passion, enthusiasm, you need love. for the industry. And so we don’t necessarily focus on if somebody has a college degree or not, we focus on what their qualities and their passion are. And so we haven’t really seen that, you know, be an issue. I mean, labor, we can get into a whole conversation about labor. It’s, it’s a completely different, you know, it’s not just a national problem. It’s an international problem. Um, but, but we don’t necessarily see that being an issue. Yes. We’d love to go to Mexico or the Caribbean, or, you know, if there’s a great clamping was, or we’d love to either own or operate. Um, we have other international properties as well. So I think that would be something great for us. But I want to go back to and focus on something that, you know, Miguel had said and a little bit on what Chris had talked about, which is, you know, what our impact can be as glamping owners and operators is the spirit of hospitality, right? And we call it experiential hospitality. So while we are here at the international Mecca of F-domes, you know, talking about We have several international guests that come to our properties, whether they’re from Mexico, which is a prime source for Arizona properties that are coming to see the Grand Canyon, or we have a lot of snowbirds, of course, that come down from Canada. We’ve had guests from Asia, Germany, and the UK. But it’s our job as hospitality providers to make sure that we provide that experience. While the structure is important, it’s the experience more than anything else. And so we want to leave these international travelers with those memories and the impact of what the glamping industry can be. And so when they go back and they tell their friends, you know, Hey, we got to start a glamping operation in Poland. Oh my gosh. I loved it. I got to talk to Miguel, you know, M G A. Is that what it’s called? Mexican glamping association. Yeah.

Miguel Ángel Huerta Vallejo: Tell me in Spanish.

Mike Harrison: That’s pretty cool. I feel like that’s pretty good. So whether they want to start an operation there or they want to tell their friends to come visit to us, right? And I think that’s why we’re here at the Glamping Show. That is what I take away from all these is that, you know, at the end of the day, we’re in the hospitality and the outdoor hospitality business, whether you manufacture a consultant, an owner, an operator, a teacher, that’s what I always take away.

Brian Searl: The reason I ask you the question is how do we foster that spirit, that excitement, that joy into more people who, like even the people who are going for hospitality degrees, half of them don’t have that joy, right? Yeah. So what are some tips you have for operators who are in rural areas who don’t have such a large

Mike Harrison: So I think, you know, as Miguel mentioned, you know, the virtual world, and Chris talked about his soon to be Mexican class, you know, everybody can see these things in Polish. Everybody can see these things virtually. This podcast, you know, can be broadcast at any of the 182 countries in the world. And so, you know, first you have to have a zest for learning, but the resources are out there. And so, you know, I think, you know, the folks have to want to learn, but the more and more broadcasting, either video or digital or resource wise on the internet, you know, there are plenty of resources. And so if you’re in a rural area, it doesn’t mean that you can’t learn. So we have got to continue to put content out, I guess is my point. Whether it’s through Glamping Show, whether it’s through Modern Campground, whether it’s through CRR Hospitality Blog, whatever it might be, we have to push content out. And that’s what’s wonderful about it, right? You could be in the farthest reaches of Sri Lanka and find something out from the corner of the UK. And so we have to push content out.

Brian Searl: But how do you, and last question, then I’ll go to Greg for a second, but how do you foster that in a person? How do you get someone excited about working for you in a hospital?

Mike Harrison: Well, so I say this to the students that I talk to, I cannot make you passionate. Passion is within. What I can do is I can perhaps inspire. Through inspiration, through leadership, and through passion, we want to be able to share our experiences with others. That’s what we talk about all the time. None of us are getting paid for this except for Miguel, I think. None of us are getting paid for this. We do this out of volunteerism. We do this out of service. We do this out of hospitality. And so I think the more and more folks that can continue to push this out and to portray the spirit of hospitality, it will just end up becoming pervasive. And I know this is a little bit long-winded. Let me go to Greg. But what I love about the art of hospitality industry, and many folks know I came from 20 plus years in the hotel industry. And the hotel industry, it’s like you walk in the elevator. What does everybody do when you get in an elevator? Put your head down. God forbid you talk to someone. You’re like, you look away. Is that my floor? Excuse me. Oh, pardon me. And think about the outdoor hospitality industry, whether it’s a glamping tent or it’s an RV. In that world, somebody comes out on the steps of their RV in the morning, they got their bathrobe on, they’re sipping their coffee. And then Sally comes out from her Geodome. Maybe she’s in a bathrobe, I don’t know. But it’s, morning, Bob. Morning, Sally. Can you imagine in a hotel if somebody came out of their room in their bathrobe in the hallway with a cup of coffee and said, good morning? The other person was maybe not there, but like there’d be a lawsuit, right? And I think that’s what’s really different about the outdoor hospitality industry is it is a connection industry. And so the more we can portray that passion, enthusiasm collectively is how I think the influence and inspire those other folks.

undefined: Thank you.

William Clark: Appreciate it. I have a question that maybe someone could answer. My name is William Clark. I’m from the Fiji Islands and about to set up a glamping operation in Fiji. Is there an international glamping association in existence now? Because I think every individual country are having their individual organizations and maybe an international organization would be something worth pursuing.

Joanna Reimann: I think that each country uh differs so much with the regulations and permission processes and the land approach that it would be quite hard to like we were we were trying to do it actually we did approach the subject of creation creating the international glamping federation and we were even creating the website for it we tried to send it to our clients and we wanted to advise worldwide without the support of a local association per country it is just Maybe doable, but it would be a struggle to actually advise anybody in the world how to set up a glamping resort because it differs so much. Even in the US, each state has a different law. It’s not even about state. It’s also about the city. I have the clients in Catskills in the New York state that needed to meet a building permission for the regular building with the dome. like like it’s been like i think it was like two years we were in the process they succeeded they are unique escapes amazing you can check them out amazing dance and but then like twenty minute drive from there no permissions no low no engineering files nothing just like the purchase in a week so the diversity of the requirements so fast that even in the U.S. that doing it worldwide would be, in my opinion, impossible.

Jason Thawley: I don’t know. Is it potentially nice to link up all the different countries’ organizations or just have a path of conversation between them?

William Clark: Yeah, even if it’s just educational and in spreading of information that’s I think more valuable at this point than anything else because People are hungry for education. They are hungry for information. I came to the show blindly, and it’s been amazing. Made a lot of connections. And that’s what people are hungry for. And if you can get an international association, even if it’s just to share information, I think that is valuable, of huge value.

Jason Thawley: I think for us as manufacturers that are serving companies that don’t know. I think ourselves as manufacturers who are serving other countries just as our own countries, but there’s so much, as you’re saying, to learn about the different zoning, the different permits needed for our products in those countries. It’s been great as we’ve come into the U.S. from the U.K., but we’ve joined the U.S. Glamping Association, and that’s really helping us learn about where we are. I don’t know if there was a better connection between, say, the UK Glampic Association and the US to sort of, maybe before we were thinking about coming into the US, but we had that avenue to come and talk to you about different countries association or sort of, you know, be able to have like a sort of talk or an exchange with that. That would be great. I’m not sure how that works. I don’t know what the answer is. If it’s one international federation, but then

Brian Searl: Join together but it’s it’s definitely an interesting topic of conversation when i agree with him right like so i’m thinking like you i think you’re on the right track and i think it’s obviously very hard to get down to the permitting thing i don’t disagree with any of that but if you could just provide a starting point. for someone in the fiji islands or somewhere else who’s probably for the next ten twenty years not going to have a start up mexican gaming association something like that right and then if you can use the tools that are rapidly evolving in technology right like it’s not hard to have a starting point for permits that needs verified with a right. again, starting point, right? But something that you can point them in the right direction for in their country. I think there’s a lot of value in that.

Mike Harrison: Like, I don’t think you’re, I think, you know, from the hotel industry association too, there’s really not an international organization either. And there’s a lot of reasons for that, but I think as a starting point and something to recommend for you is, I don’t know if you came across the American glamping university. And so, um, was it any good? Okay. Great. Thank you. And so for a plug for others that, you know, maybe you’re in a country that doesn’t have, you know, the glamping resources, the AGA, anybody can sign up. It doesn’t matter where you’re from. And as we talked about, it doesn’t have to be a local, it can be a virtual world. And the American glamping university is an outstanding resource. Um, you know, that’s very, I mean, you, I would assume you’d think it was very affordable, right? It’s $500, but it’s, yeah, it’s 20 plus courses, you know, that takes you from, The beginning of how do you source land, how do you permit, how do you finance it, how do you build it, et cetera, how do you market it? Then what’s coming soon is phase two, which will be now that you’re open, how do you operate it? That’s something that anybody in the world can go look at. Without having necessarily the Glamping Association, they can have a starting point with information overload. It’s a good plug for our hosts, American Glamping University.

William Clark: I’d just like to add one thing. Folks are talking about trying to get people to work in remote areas. In a third world country, and this goes for Fiji because that’s where I’m from and that’s where I speak from experience, you can go to remote areas and there have been villages there for hundreds of years, thousands of years. And one of the problems is they don’t have employment. So they’re basically subsisting. If you come in with a glamping project, they will open their hearts and their pockets and everything to be able to get that opportunity. So if you partner with them, they make an excellent partner. They have the land, they will give you the work, they are very hospitable people, and I think this goes for other places like the Philippines as well. The people are living in remote villages and they’ve done it for hundreds of years and they subside, you know, there’s substance. It’s just, you know, but they need the information, they need the know-how, they need the training. And that’s what you will provide when you come in as a potential investor. And that opportunity is huge. And they’ve been glamping for years. So it’s just that you bring in that extra quality and take it to the next level. And then you make it so they can reach out on the international scene by going on social media stuff. So with the digital age now and this new trend is a huge opportunity, I believe, in third world countries. And you are doing them a service. You’re bringing them income. You’re bringing them education. and for them it’s going to be amazing. They can stay in their village, they can enjoy their lifestyle, and you can bring in the people and they’re going to be next to nature, they’re going to be next to a culture, and it’s going to be a win-win situation.

Brian Searl: Yeah, 100% agree. How are we doing on time, Lisa?

 

This is MC Fireside Chats, a weekly show featuring conversations with thought leaders, entrepreneurs, and outdoor hospitality experts who share their insights to help your business succeed. Hosted by Brian Searle, the founder and CEO of Insider Perks, empowered by insights from Modern Campground, the most innovative news source in the industry.

Brian Searl: with Insider Perks, and we are excited to be here at the American Glamping Show in Denver, Aurora, Colorado, wherever we’re at. Is it Denver? It’s close to Denver. Live! Oh, we’re live every week, Mike. Well, you gotta throw this in there, man. You gotta throw me off my intro. I had this whole thing planned. It was going to be wonderful. I had it scripted. I practiced in here this morning. Anyway, super excited to be here at the glamping show, uh, with a bunch of our regular recurring guests, Mike Harrison, uh, McGuire hair from the American Mexican glamping association. Uh, Greg Emmer is here. And then we have some special guests as well. Chris cube is a return guest as well. So I’m gonna let, uh, I’m gonna pass around the mic here and we’ll let everybody just briefly introduce themselves. Mike, you’ve got one. I think we can, if you guys can’t hear us, let us know, but just keep it kind of pointed at whoever’s.

Mike Harrison: Hi, welcome to Denver. This is Mike Harrison with CRR Hospitality. We own and manage luxury upscale glamping and RV resorts, and we’re excited to be participating in the American Glamping Conference again.

Brian Searl: Awesome. Thanks for being here, Mike. I’ll just pass mine over to Miguel.

Miguel Ángel Huerta Vallejo: Hello, everybody. This is Miguel from the Mexican Lamping Association. And it feels so good to be back. You know, this is like the Christmas for the glampers, you know, or like Thanksgiving because, well, we don’t celebrate Thanksgiving in Mexico, but I guess that it’s like that.

Greg Emmert: Hi, everyone. Greg Emmert from Camp Strategy. We are a consulting group that can help end to end with folks building glamping or camping properties and excited to be here in Colorado with everybody. Yeah, it is very much like Thanksgiving or Christmas for the glamping community. So thanks for having us on.

Jason Thawley: Thank you. Hi, my name is Jason Thorley, and this is our first visit to the US or showing at the US Glamping Show this year. And my company is called Tree Tents International. And we sort of create and make suspended structures. So structures that hang in the trees, really. So yeah, check us out. Nice to be here.

Chris Jeub: Hey, I’m Chris Jeub, the glamping guy. I’m kind of tired. This has been a wonderful, wonderful couple of days here in Colorado. My operation is just south of here at Monument Glamping. And yeah, I’m just loving this time. It is like Christmas.

Tomás Rodas Calderón: Well, hello, everybody. My name is Tomas. I’m from Ecuador. We’re at Starweb Glamping. It’s our first time here as exhibitors and it’s my third time as a visitor. So for me, it’s like a dream come true being here.

Brian Searl: So I know we want to focus a little bit during the show on international. That’s kind of one of the main focuses here is to talk about the international vendors, maybe the glamping scene overall, how it looks overseas in your respective countries, things like that. Before we get there, I do want to just start by talking about the glamping show overall, right? I think this, for me, is one of the most exciting shows that I come to every year. I think everybody will probably agree. We already heard Christmas, right? I don’t know if it gets better than that. But it’s just so interesting. Lisa, I think you were saying, and Lisa is our camera person running behind the scenes, you can’t see her. When she was talking to me about how there’s just so many new people, it’s almost like a good kind of turnover here every year. That’s so many new people who are interested in developing and getting into glamping or just walking around and they’re all happy and excited and ambitious. And like, it’s just a different feel from a typical conference. And that’s not a slight on a typical conference, but it’s just different. And they all just like they pack in the vendor booth halls. They all sit in the, in the education sessions and they all just stay and they network and drink and have taco tuesdays and all the things and it’s just a really friendly atmosphere and so i’m happy and excited to be a part of that i think this is i don’t know if it’s better attended than it has been but it’s for sure is very close if not numbers are far higher are they okay i haven’t heard anything yet but yeah turnover or increase in 50% increase okay yeah that’s true now the exhibitors right so they have that huge outdoor tent over there that we don’t have yeah I completely forgot about that so but anyway so maybe just uh we’ll pass around the mic and give your thoughts and feelings maybe a little bit about like we did about the glamping show last year what’s some education that you’ve seen some people you’ve experienced vendors that you’ve talked to you’re seeing just something that’s

Mike Harrison: Absolutely. Thank you. And I think, you know, what’s impressed me is, I know this topic is about international, but I love the diversity of the different types of glamping products and clientele and customers and vendors that are from all over, not just the country, but the world. Whether it’s the Mexican Glamping Association or, you know, the F-Domes in Poland, it’s just great to see such an international presence here, which is exciting. You know, the glamping industry, as we know, started in England, and then kind of transitioned over here and it’s really exploded and boomed in america and continues to morph and evolve into many many different things and you know we have the discussion all the time about what is glamping and glamping could be many different things whether it’s two units or 30 units or a full-blown resort or in an rv resort that continues to get redefined as the glamping industry continues to evolve partnerships with hyatt and hilton with some of the major brands has also started to expand it so I think it’s been a very exciting show. As Brian mentioned, the vibe here is just awesome. It feels like glamping. It’s casual. It’s relaxed. It’s outdoorsy. It’s just, it’s much better here than in a typical conference hall. So excited to see what continues to happen.

Brian Searl: So I want to make sure we continue here in a second. Joanne popped in here a little bit late. By the way, you were talking about before the show, and I don’t know if they can hear me on that Microphone in the room. I’ll just talk a little bit louder, but you were talking about Iceland and how this dome that we’re in right now. Lisa, did you get good pictures of this? Because Joanna’s truly going to talk about it in a second. But this dome that we’re in, it’s on negative 40 Celsius, and you’re trying to find it in Iceland. Yeah. I’ll eventually buy one, because Iceland’s my favorite country. I went on a vacation last year, I think it was. It feels like so long ago. But just everywhere you look, I don’t know if you’ve been, but everywhere you look, Iceland.

Joanna Reimann: So it’s super exciting to be a part of that.

Brian Searl: But please, introduce yourself. Tell us what happened.

Joanna Reimann: Yeah, sure. Well, the dome we are in at the moment, it’s like this for permanent, I would say, use. So they are located all over the world. And yeah, as you mentioned, Iceland is one of our countries that we delivered to. But there is also North Pole and there are like countries that have very rigid climates from very cold to very hot to very windy. And due to the shape and the fact that the structure is actually customized and adjusted for the client, each client separately. They do great in any weather conditions. And basically, when even walking around the show, and I would just refer to what you have just said about the show, I love this place. And being a part of the glamping show and the glamping community, like being here the third time in a row. For us, like we came from Poland, so for us, it was just getting into the American glamping industry was a bit harder because we didn’t know people here in the industry. And we could see how people commute, how you guys know each other, how you exchange your ideas. So now being here the third year in a row and kind of become the part of this community and getting like the manufacturer of the year from the Glamping Association, It’s like very rewarding and it’s like we really enjoy being here with the domes and with the tent and with the chairs with everything like we introduced and we it’s the second year in a row we actually make a premiere of our new products in the US. We wait with all the premieres we start for the glamping show. So last year was a sliding door, the new insulation, this year there is a new camping tent, there is the outdoor line of the outdoor furniture, And we do not showcase it until the glamping show, because we respect the show and we love the show so much that we just wait to start the premiering in the glamping show. So yeah, that’s amazing.

Brian Searl: So tell us where we’re sitting in real quick, just give us kind of a setting of the dome and

Joanna Reimann: Well, actually, this is one of the smallest sizes that we recommend for couples retreats. So it’s a 300 square feet, which is 30 square meters for those who do the metric. And it’s with the reinforced frame, with the standard insulation layer, with the skylight window that can be covered and uncovered depending on your needs and temperature. And we are sitting on the chairs that we manufacture, which are done from, and now this is for the new word I learned in American, the pronunciation, aluminum. Yeah, this is the right pronunciation. Yeah, perfect. So yeah, so they’re very light and rust free and they will like, you know, can be exposed to the sun and to any weather conditions. Oh, yeah. Of course, we have here the options of upgrading the size and the add-ons, but the dome we are at at the moment is like the couple-sized dome that can be with the bathroom additionally, or without if people want to build it themselves.

Brian Searl: Perfect. Thank you. I want to go back to Miguel here and then go around there. We were just talking about some of the benefits here, some of the things that have impressed you about the Glamping show so far.

Miguel Ángel Huerta Vallejo: I think that the glamping show always feels like home, and that happened to me ever since the first time that I visited. To me, being able to be with you guys, to be told you’re the leaders of the industry, and it doesn’t feel like that. I was talking to Brian the other day about that. feels like friends being friends which i think that it’s great that’s number one two uh it’s so diverse and we’re like getting this push and doing it in spanish uh maybe we get to see that uh i’m and for example in nike that i’ve been to other conferences for a different industry in here in the states uh it’s overwhelming to see that at least a fourth I would say that 25% of the attendees are either Latino or Latino descent, you know? So, of course, like, I mean, you can always polish your Spanish while you’re here, or English, you know, like all the minimum. To me, I think that we have to recognize David as well. Him putting the show together now that he is on probably one of his last shows. I think that is a great legacy that he has left behind. And, well, maybe next year we need a new setup, you know, and do it live and see the people that follow us, because there have been people that have told me, hey, I’ve seen you in one of the podcasts, so it feels just great.

Greg Emmert: Yeah, and I think to dovetail off of what Mike and Miguel just said, every conference has its own pulse and rhythm and crowd. This crowd is very different from others, and it’s just so diverse, but there’s so many dreamers and people here with amazing ideas that you can see it’s about to hatch. That’s really interesting. I think from the consultant side, like when we advise our clients on maybe how many units to put in or what type of units to put in, one of the barriers that we’ve seen the last few years is obviously construction costs, not just the infrastructure, the things in the ground, but also the units themselves. This year, there’s actually, and maybe somebody else can back me up on this, but I feel like some of the price points have adjusted on some of these and I’m seeing some that make maybe a little more sense financially, because for some of these really high-end luxurious ones, if you’re north where you’re only going to get a six-month season, that’s tough to make work on a business plan. If you’ve got to try to return… It’s a $200,000 unit and you can only rent it six months, that’s difficult. If you’re a Florida park or you’re in Arizona, maybe that’s a little easier. But even they have You know, they’ve got high and low seasons as well. So, um, seeing some of the, the unit costs, maybe starting to finally feel the markets and come down. I just, that’s been really nice and nice surprise. And then if the people from new book are watching, I have to tell you, putting a barista in your booth, brilliant. I am jacked up right now. So I’m probably talking five times faster than I should be, but to be able to get a double espresso at a booth was fantastic. And so I was in their booth listening to the product pitch, completely jacked up. So great idea. Anybody out there, put a barista in your booth.

Brian Searl: Does that help you remember it more or less though, if you’re jacked up?

Greg Emmert: Yes to all. Okay. I don’t know if that makes sense, but yeah, that’s what’s happening.

Jason Thawley: Great, thanks. Yeah, I mean, about the show, I think we’ve been over in the UK in the glamping business for probably near on 15 years now. We’re right from its infancy. I can remember designing our first product and having it up on our website. We hadn’t even made it. And I got a call off a TV production company which Was filming the first series of a show called George Clark’s amazing spaces. I don’t know if anyone’s ever seen that but basically following the new emerging trends in the glamping industry or just like tiny house builders and I sort of managed to black my way on today. They said hey, I love your tree tank. Can you come and film it? And I was like, yeah, okay So, you know, we put the phone down we built it we got it out there and you know we slowly built a business over that but In terms of shows over in the UK, nothing touches this really. It’s so great to be here and the sense of community with everybody and everyone’s so welcoming. It’s quite nervous for us as a UK company coming over here, showing something a bit different and trying to feel everyone’s feedback from that, but it’s just been really nice to be here. I visited last year without the product just to get a feel for it all. And I think. The American market just seems to be a lot more organized and a lot more business-led in a way. They know what they want. They’ve done their research. They know the price point. They know their market demographic. It’s really nice to speak to people with that already sorted out with them. We’re not trying to have to explain all this to them. They know what’s going to work. I find the inquiries a lot more serious here. It’s just really nice to be here.

Brian Searl: What would you say, have you been to the UK glamping show?

Jason Thawley: So yeah, we have a few shows in the UK. We have a big one that’s in September, right? Yeah, yeah, that’s right. Yeah. You know, it’s a bit hit and miss that show. Like, so the year, not this year, the year before, you know, we had a good range of people, but I think it’s the diversity of product. that we see there and you know you’d think you guys being probably as you said a little bit behind the UK market but you know The range of stuff here and the quality of the conferencing and the talks that are on offer is just miles ahead of what we have over there in the UK. Not to you know, the UK show’s great, it’s run nice, but there just doesn’t seem to be that sort of vibe.

Joanna Reimann: We attended several times the Glancing Show UK at the Firm Business Innovation.

Jason Thawley: Yes, yeah, we’ve done that one too.

Joanna Reimann: Yeah, and we stopped two years ago. We just focused on the U.S. market and the U.S. fight and the knowledge. And I think that actually, even though the U.K. started the glamping, I think that the U.S. is now running the first place position. I think so. I think that the U.K. is left behind due to, as well, the lamp limitations. Like you just run out of land for glamping. That’s very true. You just put these cabins next to each other and still the UK has this land, the open space, and I think that this is what made them the first place.

Jason Thawley: Also, I think yesterday was so busy and we’ve had so many international visitors here to our stand as well. It’s not just the Americans coming to visit but for their market. You’re getting international people coming here because this is a show to be at.

Joanna Reimann: Exactly. I was so surprised so many people were flying from all over the world I was like I thought we are like the exception like flying from Poland but no they are like people flying from over the world like the South America like people speaking Spanish like you know it’s like once in a year I speak Spanish and it’s here so not only English but it’s amazing yeah how how diverse it is.

Chris Jeub: proud to be an american oh that’s that’s wonderful gosh i guess i’m the local one here but uh um yeah this this glamping show has been fantastic i this is my fourth glamping show in a row And of course, I just live an hour away, so it’s real easy for me to do. But I want to really speak to the people who are maybe watching. I know a lot of people who skip out on that big show. American glamping operators, that’s really what glamping guy is for, is for the individual operator, landowner, developing their glamping operation on their private property. And they sometimes skip out. I debuted with a class last year and I had 14 students, kind of high-end class, but 14 students and five of them ended up, which actually I think is not that bad because it’s an expense. You have to pay for a flight. You got to get a hotel and stuff. I have one of the students who’s staying down with me on my property and stuff. So that’s all fine and good. So it is an expense. But one third of them came here and they are ecstatic about how how nice it is. They’re learning so much. They’re consuming so much information. They’re learning so much from so many vendors over a year. It’s like their mouth is friendly planted against a fire hose and they’re going to go home with a stack of business cards and handouts and connections and hopefully new friends to follow up with. I know I am, like I do every year when I come here.

Tomás Rodas Calderón: Oh, well for us, it’s been a whole adventure. We’ve been preparing for this show like for the whole year We are mainly focused in central america and south america. We have an office in san jose costa rica and also one in ecuador that covers south america And it’s been crazy. Like uh, we have seen this show marketed so well With i10s marketing on South America area and also the Central America and we have customers from us that are that came to the glamping show and we stop each other like we’re both from from Ecuador so. it’s really great to see that people is eager to learn more to find more diversity on suppliers being a structure suppliers or also service suppliers like the latin american market for service suppliers for the glamping industry is just developing is really going big like the zoning and permits in south america is much more friendly than in the States. So we have seen people that are eager to know about more and to learn how to run things well and have the correct services, correct business plan to know how to manage the property. So it’s been great. It’s been like a dream come true, like I said, and I’ve been enjoying it a lot. It’s crazy how much little time we have to put together our structures and the same to dismantle, but I think it’s part of it. So really happy.

Brian Searl: So I know we want to talk a little bit about international, right? And we really kind of had a little bit of a focus on the topic of it, but we didn’t flesh it out fully. So I would love to have you guys kind of lead this and take it where you want. You’re all from different countries except for the American over there. I’m kidding. I’m also an American. I just live in Canada. But I’d love for you guys to just take it in the direction of almost like a compare notes thing I think would be interesting. for you guys to what is the state of glamping in your country what you know and obviously glamping is a buzzword that i’m scott bayer from karen consulting was walking around with a camera his son was to you know tell me what your definition of glamping is we’ve talked about this on the show many times before there isn’t really one right so even beyond glamping like luxury camping uh you know tree houses yurts tents like just what is the history of that in your country and then we’ll see where the conversation takes us do you want to start first tomorrow

Tomás Rodas Calderón: Also, I mentioned we started business five years and a half. We are like the only one and there’s just another small company that distribute glamping structures. They are manufacturers and we are importers and we have seen how the market of glamping has developed a lot in our country, not only for glamping sites or for Airbnb, but people use our structures for much more diverse functionalities such as a school. For example, we have a full school made In the northern part of ecuador. It’s called mine school that it’s fully done on domes, uh eight meter diameter dome and 10 meter diameter dome so that’s like really impressive to see that uh people has uh evolved and seen uh a glamping structure not only for dwelling but uh for having a commercial purpose We also have designers stores made in a dome. So it’s been crazy. We have a church that is done in a dome tent, 20 meter diameter. So it’s 314 square meters or 900 square feet. I don’t know if I’m correct. But yeah, so, uh, it has evolved a lot and that is something that well we have been seeing, uh in a while Uh, but yeah, like I mean like in the service thing about uh running a glamping That’s something that our country is missing or lacking. So I see great opportunity in that. Uh, and also we have seen uh, like the opportunity to bring up like a ota, uh, like booking or expedia, but for glamping like in ecuador we have hundreds of them and people are looking to find the right way to choose your glamping so in the service area we see like many possible developments that can lead to a much more mature industry.

Brian Searl: So sorry one question about ecuador real quick um so i know like if you look at the all the land that we’ve talked about that people are developing glamping sites on in america and canada it’s just so vast right uh we have this perception of when you want to start a glamping operation in a rural area that it’s difficult right is it more difficult in a less widely developed country like Ecuador without all the, or is that my perception is completely wrong of Ecuador? I’ve never been.

Tomás Rodas Calderón: So it’s easier. Uh, like you have, uh, electricity, water, like your services are rural is what I mean, like out in the middle of not near a city. Uh, it’s easier to get the permits like rural permits in our region are not that hard to get because there are not uh, The laws are not things for a structure like this. They are like completely innovative So what we have seen and it may be a problem in some time is like not being regulated like you can do it, you can develop the structure and even we have customers that have some zoning issues and look for us for being removable structures. So being removable structure is much easier to do the permits and start your business. So we see that as an advantage and we have take out some business from the traditional construction and people is starting to use our structures as a solution for their permit solving and stuff like that.

Brian Searl: Who wants to go next?

Chris Jeub: Are we doing international?

Brian Searl: Well, I mean, I’m from Canada, so technically you are international, right?

Chris Jeub: Well, I just wanted to say that.

Brian Searl: I mean, I think it would be interesting for you, maybe Chris, to talk about, like you have Glamping Guy, you do consulting, right? For people who are interested here. Is there ever a time where you would expand internationally and talk to people who are developing?

Chris Jeub: Heck yeah. Yeah, that’d be awesome. I mean, I would love that. In America, I think the, I don’t know if this is any different internationally, but the traditional glamping unit would be the safari tent. I call them an outfitter’s tent because I started out with a hunting tent. That was my story of setting up my hunting tent and renting it out on Airbnb and making a lot of money. It turned out to be a really nice and nice thing. I would say five years ago when I started, glamping was something I needed to explain to people, even to planning departments, even to building inspectors and things like that. They just didn’t get it. But now it’s exploded. It’s just been an explosion of creativity. And now we have different, well, we’re in a dome for crying out loud. And that wasn’t even a thing, I think, five years ago. I mean, now they’re all over in glamping operations. And tree houses, and we have schoolies, and buses, and gosh, what else? Container homes. We’re big into container homes. It’s just the atmosphere of creativity in the glamping community. I mean, I can’t think of a more creative market. It’s artistic. boom that is going on when it comes to, oh, and you know what? In America, the states and the counties and especially the states are really catching on. Certain ADU, like additional or auxiliary dwelling unit laws are really becoming more acceptable for even townhomes being allowing ADUs on their property. And then if it’s glamping like a glove. So it’s exciting. It’s an exciting time to be in such a dynamic and creative market.

Brian Searl: How do you think, Chris, just one more question, how do you think we solve that education? Like here we have this huge show that some people are well enough off of to come from across the world, right? Not everybody can buy a $3,000 plane ticket and come here and have the accommodation. How do we reach people in international markets who want to have… because obviously, they have this passion. We have people here from all over the world, right? How do we reach those people with the education they need to learn about how to get started, how to achieve their dreams, how to I mean, how would you do that if you had the opportunity to do that?

Chris Jeub: Well, I, by golly Brian, I do have the opportunity to do that. I love teaching. I love to teach. I was a public school teacher. I love teaching to do glamping full time. And now it’s kind of coming back. Once a teacher is always a teacher and teachers know that I think all teachers should be at a glamping because it’s a, it’s just a, you’re, you’re, you’re constantly educated people who are coming through your venues. Uh, but I, I’m offering a free course on the 21st of October. That’s free internationally. And it’s called the easy entry to a glamping business. And that’s how we decided. We just keep talking about it, keep living it.

Brian Searl: But only in English. We need you to learn more languages.

Chris Jeub: It is only in English, I know. Now it’s going to be in Polish. No, I’m just kidding.

Jason Thawley: It’s interesting what you were saying about the new laws about treating these buildings as these buildings are. I think in the UK something that’s always been an issue is in terms of, we call it planning permission in the UK. if you want to do a development of this sort of thing of domes or yurts or sort of semi-temporary accommodation like this, it goes through the same process but you would have to go through the same council as if you were building a house. Residential, big commercial things, it all feeds through the same thing and has to abide by the same laws. which can just get ridiculous when, you know, we don’t have to have the same insulation thickness in a small, tiny home that doesn’t take much heat input and is probably going to be used seasonally, but to get past this permission because we’re having to compete against it.

Chris Jeub: Yeah, you know what, this is a fascinating time in American history for, if I can just interrupt you a little bit, because what’s going through America is a revolution of land use law. And very specifically, what happened in Colorado this last May is it was signed into law that the state is forcing municipalities and towns to adopt ADU laws, because there’s been a tendency for the small towns to restrict ADUs on private property, and much like an HOA, kind of like a townwide HOA, homeowners association, and And now the state governments, because we are in the housing crisis, it costs a lot of money to live out in the West in America. It’s out of reach for most people. And so one way of solving that is to liberalize local municipality laws and regulations that keep people from buying property. So it actually empowers the small The small dog can be the fat cat for once and actually rent out part of their property with ADUs. And that’s glamping, really.

Jason Thawley: Yeah. I mean, it’s one of those things, isn’t it, where you don’t want people to go too far with it and sort of, you know… Kind of protectionist kind of mentality.

Chris Jeub: We don’t want expansion of housing. but there’s a lack of housing.

Jason Thawley: When these problems can be solved. Like that. Exactly. Yeah. And also I think, you know, one of the things that we really are sort of quite big on in the UK in terms of people setting up new glamping operations is that, you know, we have a housing crisis, but we also have a hell of a lot of second homes. use in third homes. So people will be living in London and then over in these sort of nicer sort of holiday areas, Devon, Cornwall, Wales, they’ll have a second home, but they’ll be empty loads of the year. So that’s not feeding back into that local community. It’s driving up house prices for the younger people who can’t afford to stay and live in their locality as much as they’d like to. So, you know, I think these structures have this, you know, they solve a tourism accommodation issue without breaking into housing stock. And that’s really important. It also brings more tourism into the area in a very low impact way, which then helps local communities, sort of the local village host office or the local village pub who, you know, local businesses love it.

SPEAKER_00: Exactly. Yeah.

Jason Thawley: So, you know, I really do think that in the UK, we need something like this, but they need to just see this as a different thing and come up with a new solution for people to being able to open up new businesses, get permits and licenses to have these sorts of structures on their land.

Joanna Reimann: Oh, I don’t know where to start. First of all, I agree with Chris that once a teacher, always a teacher. So we’ve been there, done that. We have this approach with FDOMS that we do not only sell DOMS. And I think this is crucial that manufacturers also build the awareness of Glamping at their own countries and worldwide. We have delivered like 7,000 DOMS all around the world. Like US, it’s like the half of our sale. but we have all Europe, Latin America, Central America, like Japan. So building the awareness, we even have like these two lines of marketing, like one is the sales marketing, and the second one is building the awareness. So to teach people, because in Poland, actually, glamping is a totally new term. So people just crawl in this kind of area. So we are helping them out, teaching them what glamping is, what are the assets. We are kind of advisors, because there are no such people like you, Chris, in Poland, who just advise on glamping and help people with permissions. It’s still a new concept. So we feel responsible to teach people what glamping is and how to do it. And also, throughout the process, we never kind of focus. I know it sounds funny, being a manufacturer and a sales director saying this, but we don’t really focus on sale. Like we kind of focus on supporting the clients throughout the process. And as you know, these processes can take two weeks because I did have clients who were buying like 10 doms in a week. But I have clients who are coming back to me after three years, four years with the permissions. But throughout these three years or four years, we are all the time in touch. We have our engineers sending the engineering files. We have architects sending the drawings. We advise them on the land. We send them the deck plans. So we do everything to make this process easier for them and for their engineering offices, make it easier and faster. And I think it’s also a huge responsibility of each supplier to kind of think outside the box of only selling. it’s just like building the relationship and supporting because it will turn out to be like you know the community we are creating and I think it should be like in all countries like in Poland as I said it’s just the beginning so we are kind of pioneers in like manufacturing but also teaching people what glamping is.

Greg Emmert: I feel like we should pass down to Miguel because he was I know you had something you wanted to share.

Miguel Ángel Huerta Vallejo: No, no. Well, on my side, I just wanted to share it. I was thinking about all the comments that you just made, but to me, it has been impressive. This, uh, glamping show, uh, not only the number of attendees that are international, but the number of people that they want to take, um, the category in their hands. And what do I mean by this? The Mexican Lamping Association, we have a booth during the show and so many people have reached out and tell us like, okay, you’re doing something great. I’m going to start the the The category is going international. That’s number one. Number two, um, for example, in Mexico, they just pass a law where they’re like putting a cap on the number of nights for a property to be able to be sold on Airbnb, you know? So, um, I was talking with one of the largest developers in the Mayan Riviera, which is one of the hotspots for tourism in the world. And what he was saying is that he’s foreseeing that a lot of the investment that we’ll use to go to vacation rentals, like departments and those type of things, will go to glamping sites. And I think that it makes sense. Now, Brian was asking a little bit before, like, how does it go when you’re on the glamping site in a remote rural area. And at least in Latin America, since labor is not as expensive as in other places, I think that it’s a breeze and you have more of a personal touch because you have people living in there full-time, that’s number one. Two, What I love is that, for example, in Mexico we have the Firefly Sanctuary. It’s a forest that during the rainy season, two hours away from Mexico City, over 60,000 people visit that part. And then the season came to an end and some of the guides, they will go back to being masons or to like migrate to Mexico City, you know, and by having glamping sites in there, they’re finding a way in which they can find, well, keep being in the tourism industry, being able to serve, do what they love. And I, to me, I love like, for example, like cryptocurrencies, you know, And I think that tourism is getting decentralized by glamping as well, because our category was enabled largely because now, for example, you can have a internet anywhere. You go viral with a property that maybe back in the day you will need to have to be in the traditional media that was more costly. So I think that it’s going to get uh, even more diverse, even more international. And we’re going to see, uh, some brands, um, that are leaders in certain countries going into other countries. So, so yeah, I mean, to me, I think that even if this is not the international show, maybe next year, uh, will be the international show. So, so it’s growing like crazy. It’s, it’s amazing.

Brian Searl: I think it’s interesting, Miguel, and if I’m not representing what you’re trying to say, let me know, right? But when you talked about the rural areas and it being easier to find people who would work there, right? Is that what you’re saying? I think that kind of resonates with me. I just came back from a trip to the Philippines. And we went to these beautiful, amazing resorts with clear water. But there was one on this tiny island called Similian Island, and the workers all lived on the island. They were right there. And so obviously, just like a person who’s a host of an RV resort or something like that, you don’t want to be bothered all the time, of course. But they were still right there, and it was easy because, I don’t know if it’s, they’re not as spread out, but they’re just, They live everywhere, if that makes sense, right? And so I think in that regard, is that what you’re trying to say? I think it’s easier?

Miguel Ángel Huerta Vallejo: Yeah, I mean, of course, it has the challenges, because at the end you have to train them. Sure, they do this out of a passion. They didn’t go to a hot lyric school or something where Chris can translate his classes with some AI tools. But I think that this year we’re also seeing a lot of AI capabilities as well. But I think that we’re going to see that these remote places are strengthened and they are more appealing because of glamping, that’s number one. And two, those people, I always say that our industry will not get as disrupted as other industries. Because at the end, sure, you’re paying for the human touch. Maybe you don’t want them to be all day, but at the end you want to ask them, okay, what’s interesting here that they cook for you? Stuff like that. So yeah, definitely. The other thing that I already talked with one of the major leaders for the category here in the States, I was telling him that, okay, maybe you have a lack of skilled labor for glamping sites, because I remember from one of the conferences that operations is to run the business is one of the main issues for the industry to grow as a whole. Maybe we can send you a couple of people over here that they are already and that they already know how to run a glamping place, that they will love to have this type of opportunities. And at the end, I think that the category is going to keep on growing. And yeah, it’s amazing.

Brian Searl: I want to go to you in a sec, Craig, but I want to ask Mike about something real quick. I guess I could just pass my mic to him, right? But, um, so Mike, I’m curious and I’m kind of putting you on the spot here. It’s not a question I normally ask you, right. But from a employment standpoint, like we’re talking about with Miguel, uh, we’ve had some conversations where if you had the right opportunity, there would be a interest perhaps in expanding to Mexico and around here. Right. But for you, like, as you look at, especially over the COVID years, all the staffing issues out in the industry, as you look at, I think it’s fair to say that there’s a trend toward less people perhaps having college degrees in the areas that would benefit us in hospitality is that there were five or six years ago, right?

Mike Harrison: Yeah. I mean, I think, uh, I don’t really even think that’s a consideration. I remember, you know, I, I speak at, uh, University of Massachusetts. I speak at Arizona state to the tourism departments. And one of the things that I talked to is that, and they’re in there for a hospitality degree, but one of the things that I say about the hospitality, uh, industry is you don’t need a master’s, a bachelor’s or doctorate to succeed in this industry. You need heart, right? You need drive, you need passion, enthusiasm, you need love. for the industry. And so we don’t necessarily focus on if somebody has a college degree or not, we focus on what their qualities and their passion are. And so we haven’t really seen that, you know, be an issue. I mean, labor, we can get into a whole conversation about labor. It’s, it’s a completely different, you know, it’s not just a national problem. It’s an international problem. Um, but, but we don’t necessarily see that being an issue. Yes. We’d love to go to Mexico or the Caribbean, or, you know, if there’s a great clamping was, or we’d love to either own or operate. Um, we have other international properties as well. So I think that would be something great for us. But I want to go back to and focus on something that, you know, Miguel had said and a little bit on what Chris had talked about, which is, you know, what our impact can be as glamping owners and operators is the spirit of hospitality, right? And we call it experiential hospitality. So while we are here at the international Mecca of F-domes, you know, talking about We have several international guests that come to our properties, whether they’re from Mexico, which is a prime source for Arizona properties that are coming to see the Grand Canyon, or we have a lot of snowbirds, of course, that come down from Canada. We’ve had guests from Asia, Germany, and the UK. But it’s our job as hospitality providers to make sure that we provide that experience. While the structure is important, it’s the experience more than anything else. And so we want to leave these international travelers with those memories and the impact of what the glamping industry can be. And so when they go back and they tell their friends, you know, Hey, we got to start a glamping operation in Poland. Oh my gosh. I loved it. I got to talk to Miguel, you know, M G A. Is that what it’s called? Mexican glamping association. Yeah.

Miguel Ángel Huerta Vallejo: Tell me in Spanish.

Mike Harrison: That’s pretty cool. I feel like that’s pretty good. So whether they want to start an operation there or they want to tell their friends to come visit to us, right? And I think that’s why we’re here at the Glamping Show. That is what I take away from all these is that, you know, at the end of the day, we’re in the hospitality and the outdoor hospitality business, whether you manufacture a consultant, an owner, an operator, a teacher, that’s what I always take away.

Brian Searl: The reason I ask you the question is how do we foster that spirit, that excitement, that joy into more people who, like even the people who are going for hospitality degrees, half of them don’t have that joy, right? Yeah. So what are some tips you have for operators who are in rural areas who don’t have such a large

Mike Harrison: So I think, you know, as Miguel mentioned, you know, the virtual world, and Chris talked about his soon to be Mexican class, you know, everybody can see these things in Polish. Everybody can see these things virtually. This podcast, you know, can be broadcast at any of the 182 countries in the world. And so, you know, first you have to have a zest for learning, but the resources are out there. And so, you know, I think, you know, the folks have to want to learn, but the more and more broadcasting, either video or digital or resource wise on the internet, you know, there are plenty of resources. And so if you’re in a rural area, it doesn’t mean that you can’t learn. So we have got to continue to put content out, I guess is my point. Whether it’s through Glamping Show, whether it’s through Modern Campground, whether it’s through CRR Hospitality Blog, whatever it might be, we have to push content out. And that’s what’s wonderful about it, right? You could be in the farthest reaches of Sri Lanka and find something out from the corner of the UK. And so we have to push content out.

Brian Searl: But how do you, and last question, then I’ll go to Greg for a second, but how do you foster that in a person? How do you get someone excited about working for you in a hospital?

Mike Harrison: Well, so I say this to the students that I talk to, I cannot make you passionate. Passion is within. What I can do is I can perhaps inspire. Through inspiration, through leadership, and through passion, we want to be able to share our experiences with others. That’s what we talk about all the time. None of us are getting paid for this except for Miguel, I think. None of us are getting paid for this. We do this out of volunteerism. We do this out of service. We do this out of hospitality. And so I think the more and more folks that can continue to push this out and to portray the spirit of hospitality, it will just end up becoming pervasive. And I know this is a little bit long-winded. Let me go to Greg. But what I love about the art of hospitality industry, and many folks know I came from 20 plus years in the hotel industry. And the hotel industry, it’s like you walk in the elevator. What does everybody do when you get in an elevator? Put your head down. God forbid you talk to someone. You’re like, you look away. Is that my floor? Excuse me. Oh, pardon me. And think about the outdoor hospitality industry, whether it’s a glamping tent or it’s an RV. In that world, somebody comes out on the steps of their RV in the morning, they got their bathrobe on, they’re sipping their coffee. And then Sally comes out from her Geodome. Maybe she’s in a bathrobe, I don’t know. But it’s, morning, Bob. Morning, Sally. Can you imagine in a hotel if somebody came out of their room in their bathrobe in the hallway with a cup of coffee and said, good morning? The other person was maybe not there, but like there’d be a lawsuit, right? And I think that’s what’s really different about the outdoor hospitality industry is it is a connection industry. And so the more we can portray that passion, enthusiasm collectively is how I think the influence and inspire those other folks.

undefined: Thank you.

William Clark: Appreciate it. I have a question that maybe someone could answer. My name is William Clark. I’m from the Fiji Islands and about to set up a glamping operation in Fiji. Is there an international glamping association in existence now? Because I think every individual country are having their individual organizations and maybe an international organization would be something worth pursuing.

Joanna Reimann: I think that each country uh differs so much with the regulations and permission processes and the land approach that it would be quite hard to like we were we were trying to do it actually we did approach the subject of creation creating the international glamping federation and we were even creating the website for it we tried to send it to our clients and we wanted to advise worldwide without the support of a local association per country it is just Maybe doable, but it would be a struggle to actually advise anybody in the world how to set up a glamping resort because it differs so much. Even in the US, each state has a different law. It’s not even about state. It’s also about the city. I have the clients in Catskills in the New York state that needed to meet a building permission for the regular building with the dome. like like it’s been like i think it was like two years we were in the process they succeeded they are unique escapes amazing you can check them out amazing dance and but then like twenty minute drive from there no permissions no low no engineering files nothing just like the purchase in a week so the diversity of the requirements so fast that even in the U.S. that doing it worldwide would be, in my opinion, impossible.

Jason Thawley: I don’t know. Is it potentially nice to link up all the different countries’ organizations or just have a path of conversation between them?

William Clark: Yeah, even if it’s just educational and in spreading of information that’s I think more valuable at this point than anything else because People are hungry for education. They are hungry for information. I came to the show blindly, and it’s been amazing. Made a lot of connections. And that’s what people are hungry for. And if you can get an international association, even if it’s just to share information, I think that is valuable, of huge value.

Jason Thawley: I think for us as manufacturers that are serving companies that don’t know. I think ourselves as manufacturers who are serving other countries just as our own countries, but there’s so much, as you’re saying, to learn about the different zoning, the different permits needed for our products in those countries. It’s been great as we’ve come into the U.S. from the U.K., but we’ve joined the U.S. Glamping Association, and that’s really helping us learn about where we are. I don’t know if there was a better connection between, say, the UK Glampic Association and the US to sort of, maybe before we were thinking about coming into the US, but we had that avenue to come and talk to you about different countries association or sort of, you know, be able to have like a sort of talk or an exchange with that. That would be great. I’m not sure how that works. I don’t know what the answer is. If it’s one international federation, but then

Brian Searl: Join together but it’s it’s definitely an interesting topic of conversation when i agree with him right like so i’m thinking like you i think you’re on the right track and i think it’s obviously very hard to get down to the permitting thing i don’t disagree with any of that but if you could just provide a starting point. for someone in the fiji islands or somewhere else who’s probably for the next ten twenty years not going to have a start up mexican gaming association something like that right and then if you can use the tools that are rapidly evolving in technology right like it’s not hard to have a starting point for permits that needs verified with a right. again, starting point, right? But something that you can point them in the right direction for in their country. I think there’s a lot of value in that.

Mike Harrison: Like, I don’t think you’re, I think, you know, from the hotel industry association too, there’s really not an international organization either. And there’s a lot of reasons for that, but I think as a starting point and something to recommend for you is, I don’t know if you came across the American glamping university. And so, um, was it any good? Okay. Great. Thank you. And so for a plug for others that, you know, maybe you’re in a country that doesn’t have, you know, the glamping resources, the AGA, anybody can sign up. It doesn’t matter where you’re from. And as we talked about, it doesn’t have to be a local, it can be a virtual world. And the American glamping university is an outstanding resource. Um, you know, that’s very, I mean, you, I would assume you’d think it was very affordable, right? It’s $500, but it’s, yeah, it’s 20 plus courses, you know, that takes you from, The beginning of how do you source land, how do you permit, how do you finance it, how do you build it, et cetera, how do you market it? Then what’s coming soon is phase two, which will be now that you’re open, how do you operate it? That’s something that anybody in the world can go look at. Without having necessarily the Glamping Association, they can have a starting point with information overload. It’s a good plug for our hosts, American Glamping University.

William Clark: I’d just like to add one thing. Folks are talking about trying to get people to work in remote areas. In a third world country, and this goes for Fiji because that’s where I’m from and that’s where I speak from experience, you can go to remote areas and there have been villages there for hundreds of years, thousands of years. And one of the problems is they don’t have employment. So they’re basically subsisting. If you come in with a glamping project, they will open their hearts and their pockets and everything to be able to get that opportunity. So if you partner with them, they make an excellent partner. They have the land, they will give you the work, they are very hospitable people, and I think this goes for other places like the Philippines as well. The people are living in remote villages and they’ve done it for hundreds of years and they subside, you know, there’s substance. It’s just, you know, but they need the information, they need the know-how, they need the training. And that’s what you will provide when you come in as a potential investor. And that opportunity is huge. And they’ve been glamping for years. So it’s just that you bring in that extra quality and take it to the next level. And then you make it so they can reach out on the international scene by going on social media stuff. So with the digital age now and this new trend is a huge opportunity, I believe, in third world countries. And you are doing them a service. You’re bringing them income. You’re bringing them education. and for them it’s going to be amazing. They can stay in their village, they can enjoy their lifestyle, and you can bring in the people and they’re going to be next to nature, they’re going to be next to a culture, and it’s going to be a win-win situation.

Brian Searl: Yeah, 100% agree. How are we doing on time, Lisa?