Warning: the following is not from The Onion. The following is from The Wall Street Journal, and from the mind of pollster and Consumer Mind Seer-Througher Mark Penn:
Europeans love touring churches and museums, but when it comes to vacations, Americans have always loved the great outdoors. Fishing, camping and just driving around are great American pastimes.
But now, welcome to the early stages of the era of “glamping” — glamorous camping. It’s a visit to the outdoors, but updated and upscale. While it’s just starting to take off, it’s likely to grow significantly based on emerging travel and vacation trends.
Yes: “Glamping”! Caloo, calay!
While the term is clearly incredibly valid and intellectually rigorous, less so is the claim that “glamping” is “likely to grow significantly.” Because, uh, not necessarily. Penn’s latest column cites random stats suggesting that camping is becoming more popular—“outdoor equipment store REI reports sales of family tents are up by 20%,” and “Ohio State Parks data from mid-July show camping has increased by over 15% from last year,” etc.—but does, really, little to demonstrate that glamping itself: a). exists, b). is popular, or c). is bound to become widely popular.
But, hey, no matter: the piece does give the author an excuse to refer to Teddy Roosevelt, the Rough Rider himself, as “First Glamper.” And, for that, if for nothing else in this Onion-tastic affair, I doff my cap*.
* That’s right: cap-doffing. “Coffing” being, of course, another recent and report-worthy microtrend.
Is this going to be like the "Stephen Hawking would die under the NHS" thing, with Penn about to argue that the British don't have a camping culture because they don't have an American institution like the Boy Scouts?
I'll have to tell my stepfather, the next time I see him, that the photograph from his honeymoon with my mother has to be doctored, because it shows them in front of a pup tent in the Isle of Man, and not touring a church in London. (Not that he hasn't done that, also.) And that all those stories of his scouting, hiking, camping and mountain climbing in Europe must in fact be jealous fantasies of America. Not to mention, much of my childhood memories of our camping adventures in Banff, Jasper, Yoho, Kootenay, Algonquin, and other Canadian national and provincial parks - I must have imagined those trips to campgrounds full of Canadians, Europeans, and... oh, but this part must be real... some U.S. tourists, as well.
If it counts as glamping, though, in a recent vacation to Chile we stayed at Awasi in the Atacama Desert. (Highly recommended.) Or would that be gliking - glamorous hiking - because we were actually staying in a five star boutique hotel? Well, one way or another, I recall bumping into small number of Europeans there, but not as much during a museum trip in Santiago. Strange. (Oh, wait, being from the U.S., I must be imagining the museum trip... which also must not have included a visit to the Santiago de Compostela Cathedral.)
#1 Posted by Aaron, CJR on Mon 24 Aug 2009 at 06:32 PM