February 2020

GLAMPSITES
Nomadic Musings
An International Perspective on Glamping
Far from the
Louis Thompson discusses alternative
lodging in the age of pandemics
Madding Crowd
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Louis Thompson is CEO
of Nomadic Resorts, an
interdisciplinary design and
project development company
servicing the hospitality
industry with offices in the
Netherlands, Sri Lanka,
Mauritius and South Africa.
Using a holistic approach,
Nomadic creates sustainable
resorts, tented camps, lodges
and residential projects that
reflect a true sense of place and
fit organically into their natural
surroundings. Its ethos is that
designs should serve as a bridge
to connect nature, culture and
people.
The team specialises in
sustainable architecture,
contemporary bamboo
construction, treetop living
concepts, as well as tent design,
engineering, manufacture and
installation.
Over the last 15 years Louis
has worked on some of the
leading luxury tented camps
across the world including Wild
Coast Tented Lodge in the south
of Sri Lanka, Soneva Kiri on
Ko Kut island in Thailand and
Hoanib Skeleton Coast Camp
in Namibia. The projects have
won multiple awards in both the
design and hospitality sectors
including the 2019 Ahead award
for the best resort in Asia and
the 2018 UNESCO Prix Versailles
for the best restaurant design in
the world.
louis@nomadicresorts.com
www.nomadicresorts.com
Firstly, I would like to start with
a disclaimer – I did not receive
the gift of prophecy, I am an
amateur clairvoyant peering
into the future at the request of
Open Air Business magazine.
The following predictions are
entirely sourced through my
rather grubby crystal ball and I
cannot vouch for the fidelity of
the images projected to me via
the ether.
A PREMONITION
The global travel sector has
been on a constant growth
trajectory for over 70 years, and
the trend would, under normal
circumstances, continue
unabated to reach around 1.8
billion international travellers
by 2030. However the party
could be coming to an end
and we may be witnessing
the growth trajectory slowing
over the coming decade. The
spread of the Coronavirus
this month has illustrated
the fragility of the global
travel industry – the sudden
interruption of flights to and
from one of the world’s leading
emitter markets illustrates the
potentially devastating effects
a pandemic, or worse still a
series of pandemics, could
have on tourism.
Since 2012, tourists from
China have been the world's
top spender in international
tourism, leading global
outbound travel year after
year. In 2016, the country
accounted for 21 per cent of the
world’s international tourism
spending, or $261 billion.
Now, consider that only
seven per cent of Chinese
people have a passport. A
lot of people have bet a lot
ABOVE All the planes in the air, across the world, at a given
moment in 2018
of money in a lot of sectors
on the continued expansion
of the Chinese international
outbound tourism market
across the entire planet. To
give an idea of the scale of
the opportunity one statistic
speaks volumes – the Chinese
population alone took five
billion domestic trips in 2017
alone.
The fallout from the virus
may topple giants across
multiple related industries –
notably airlines, cruise ships,
travel agents and hotel groups.
The financial consequences
could be disastrous, not only
for the travel industry but
for the world economy as
a whole. In an increasingly
interconnected, digital
economy a sneeze in Wuhan
may create a tidal wave of
turmoil that sweeps across the
entire planet.
Without wishing to be a
harbinger of doom, we should
bear in mind that the Spanish
Flu in 1918 killed over 50
million people when the world
population was only 1.8 billion
(affecting an astonishing
three to six per cent of the
world population at that time)
significantly more deaths
than the combined combat
casualties in both World Wars
combined.
In 1918 there was virtually
no international air travel –
fast forward 100 years and the
landscape has changed quite
significantly; pictured is a real
time image from an interactive
global map showing all the
planes in the air, across the
world, at a given moment in
2018.
In many ways, each of the
lines that appears can be
considered a potential vector
of contamination and the
map illustrates the significant
challenges required to contain
the disease. Though, it may
seem slightly inappropriate
or even crass, the logical
consequences of the outbreak
may have significant benefits
for the glamping sector at
the expense of some other
trending travel sectors. It is
very probable that an age of
contagion would cause some
significant changes in public
behaviour:
36 WWW.OPENAIRBUSINESS.COM