6 minute read
Why Wild Works: Boosting ROI Through Biodiverse Glamping
Creating a biodiverse, nature-rich glamping site can bring higher returns on investment whilst also delivering on guest experience and meeting Biodiversity Net Gain requirements. It’s a win-win situation.
Policy is Changing the Landscape
The Government has taken many proactive steps towards the protection and enhancement of our natural landscapes in recent years. Nutrient neutrality credits and Biodiversity Net Gain are now enshrined in planning law, and the Sustainable Farming Incentive was expanded to include increased payments and cover for actions around woodlands, orchards and coastal habitats, with greater flexibility and encouragement for farms that provide educational tours.
Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) became mandatory for all developments in 2024, with the intention of ensuring that all development leaves the natural environment in a measurably better state than before. Fortunately, working with nature is immeasurably better than working against it, and wilder sites are emerging as a trend in the glamping world.
Nature is the New Luxury
The travel industry is evolving, driven by a wave of conscious consumers concerned with sustainability, overtourism and wellness amidst rising living costs and a mental health crisis. These travellers now prioritise simplicity, environmental responsibility and restorative, relaxing experiences – qualities that are central to glamping. These qualities are also best delivered through a site that is rich in nature and considerate of the landscape. A truly biodiverse and wildlife-rich site tends to be a mix of habitats – a mosaic of sorts. These habitat mosaics also provide visual screening, mitigate landscape visual impact and create sites that are teeming with life – the ideal setting for an immersive and experiential glamping retreat.
Designing with Biodiversity from the Ground Up
Crown & Canopy builds habitat enhancement into every project we work on, and over the years we have found that over 80% of owners who contact us are actively intent on improving biodiversity and the health of their land. While we have always approached site design with nature in mind, we now work even more closely with ecologists to ensure at least a 10% net gain is delivered on each project to meet Biodiversity Net Gain requirements and to create sites that truly deliver on nature-based guest experience.
Making the right choice for nature is also the right choice for business.
Tackling Nutrient Neutrality
Nutrient neutrality is a mandatory requirement in some areas of the country, which ensures that new developments don’t worsen water pollution in designated protected areas. It requires developers to offset any increase in nutrient pollution (like nitrates and phosphates) caused by the development, so that there is no net increase in the nutrient load on sensitive habitats.
We address nutrient neutrality by designing in ecological waste systems or by replacing outdated septic systems with ecological alternatives such as Package Treatment Plants. In some cases, land can be changed from intensive commercial to more natural land management and, as a last resort, nutrient credits can be bought to offset the development.
Whilst this may sound simple, the reality is that credits are in short supply across the country and, when they can be purchased, they are often very expensive. We approach sites with this in mind – creating the most environmentally sound approach, resulting in the lowest offset requirement.
Rural Demand on the Rise
Consumers are beginning to demand alternatives to traditional accommodation in overstretched destinations and the environmental degradation and community impact that ensues. Our sister company and leading UK glamping agency Canopy & Stars is recording a clear move towards the more rural and wilder landscapes of the north and Scotland.
Demand is outstripping supply in the north, with requests for summer weekend bookings far exceeding the capacity of places that exist to fulfil them – and Yorkshire making its first appearance in the top three regions searched on our site. This could well be further evidence of the impact of wellness concerns on the industry, with the more rural areas of the north offering the sort of remote, open spaces that many are craving.
Rewilding as a Business Model
Crown & Canopy has worked with various estates and larger landholdings where rewilding projects have integrated an outdoor tourism accommodation element. This is a natural partnership – a symbiotic relationship between income generation and landscapescale recovery. Revenue generated by the tourism component supports the landscape recovery, whilst the rewilding landscape in turn supports a rich and authentic experience for guests and results in healthy occupancy rates and income.
Sites such as the Wilding Airfield in the Canopy & Stars collection are testament to how a biodiverse landscape can deliver for both business and nature. This abandoned airfield has been ‘rewilded’ into what is now a 90-acre nature reserve, with the Two Pines treehouse and Birch View cabin nestled amongst the trees. Occupancy for both these spaces is running at near capacity, effectively demonstrating the impact that beautiful spaces in wild landscapes can have.
Rewilding Coombeshead is another site in the Canopy & Stars collection where species reintroduction and a regenerating landscape are creating space for nature and a thriving business. Rewild Things are treehouses set amongst the rewilded landscape of Elmore Court in Gloucestershire. The Rewild Things treehouses have performed consistently well since joining the Canopy & Stars collection and are one of their top-performing sites.
Building Biodiversity from Day One
Building biodiversity into site design from the outset brings multiple benefits: n Meet BNG requirements of 10% net gain n Mitigate landscape visual impact n Create beautiful, wildlife-abundant landscapes n Attract guests and encourage repeat bookings n Potential to address nutrient neutrality where necessary n Develop a site which lends itself to tranquil, nature-based retreats n Good return on investment through high occupancy rates
Experience shows that when owners truly commit to creating a biodiverse landscape and integrate structures into this vision, they consistently report highly performing spaces. Healthy, biodiverse landscapes are resilient, beautiful and calming places to be. They contribute to ecosystem services and address policy and legislative requirements, so making the right choice for nature is also the right choice for business.
