Britain’s highest profile glamping firm – Secret Garden Glamping – has opened its first accommodation outside of the UK – just over the water in the Republic of Ireland.
The new location near Wexford, in the south eastern corner of the country, launched in February thanks to the company’s new franchise scheme – which seeks to leverage the brand name, first made famous on BBC Dragon’s Den.
Derry Green, founder and owner of the Secret Garden Glamping, said he was delighted that their first international expansion site was on the Emerald Isle; and he revealed they had further ambitions to launch in the USA.
He commented: “We are expanding to new locations in the UK; we’ve got six more opening in the UK this year.
“As we’ve got a massive UK audience that’s been relatively simple but Ireland’s been a target for us for a little while now.
“One of the questions that has come up is would our audience migrate over from different countries because we have a huge audience across the world from a social media point of view?
“We have been asking ourselves, can we do it in a different territory, so Ireland is the kind of test bed for that.
“If we can get an Irish audience to go to an Irish location then that gives us data on what we need to do when we go to the US, to get a US audience going to a US location!
“I had planned to open there in 2027 but if Ireland goes well I may bring it forward to this year.”
Derry, whose business has been picking up a host of awards over the past few years, including being named the AA Glamping and Camping Site of the Year, said customer demand had made the expansion plan a no-brainer.
He added: “We’ve just celebrated our six year anniversary and our audience and our bookings haven’t slowed down.
“It’s been continuous for the past six years, every time we do something new it elevates not only the brand, but also what we’re doing going forward.
“So the right time to expand is always ‘now’, and we want to try and make sure that over the next 12 to 18 months we become the go to brand for the whole of the UK and Ireland for glamping.
“We are seeing a boom again within the UK and Ireland with the issues around the US and the Middle East.
“People are always looking for alternatives and it has been like that since Covid, but what we’re looking at doing now is how do you cater for all these different types of people with all different reasons for wanting to travel in the UK?”
Plans are now afoot to open in a range of UK locations, including Wales and north east England.
As reported, Derry, who was recently re-elected as Chairman of the Glamping Industry Trade Association (GITA), has begun the franchise scheme to get people away from the OTA (Online Travel Agency) booking sites such as Booking.com and AirBnB, who normally take 15-20% of revenue.To find out more call Derry on 07732 812409 email him directly via info@thesecretgardenglamping.uk or visit www.thesecretgardenglamping.uk/franchise
