Millennials' views on glamping in the Helsinki metropolitan area

This research-based thesis is studying the glamping phenomenon and millennials’ views on it. Glamping is a growing tourism trend with a concept to combine high-quality accommodation with immersion in nature. Glamping offers consumers unique experiences, escapism, and relaxation. In this work, millennials refer to people who are 25 to 40 years old in the year 2022. Millennials are thought to be an ideal target group for glamping since they are interested in traveling and gaining new experiences and they care about the environment too. The literature review explores for example millennials’ characteristics and glamping businesses in the Helsinki metropolitan area. In addition, sustainability and new luxury will be addressed because they are seen as essential aspects of glamping. The aim is to find out how interested millennials are in glamping in the Helsinki metropolitan area and what would make them more interested, what kind of preferences do they have regarding glamping and how important is sustainability to them in glamping. The commissioner of the thesis is Service sprint for new luxury project. Quantitative method was chosen to conduct the empirical research in order to gather information from a larger number of millennials. The specific research instrument for this survey was online questionnaire using Webropol 3.0 survey and reporting tool. Wide geographical reach, direct data entry and the possibility to collect also qualitative data through open-ended questions were factors that made online questionnaire to be the most suitable instrument for this research. The questionnaire was open in October 2022 and the link to it was distributed mostly via social media. In total, 90 eligible responses were received from both Finnish and international participants. Data analyses were conducted using Webropol, Excel and Word. The results of the study show that millennials are only somewhat interested in glamping in the Helsinki metropolitan area. For instance, more information of the location, easy transportation and reasonable price could increase their interest. Millennials would prefer to glamp during summer and in a treehouse. They think that glamping places should offer at least hiking and kayaking as activities. Millennials see sustainability as a very important part of glamping, and they could consider buying a carbon offset to fully compensate for the carbon footprint of their glamping experience. The findings are discussed in relation to the theoretical framework in the last chapter of the paper. Additional research is recommended to deepen the understanding of the phenomenon and further benefit glamping businesses in the Helsinki metropolitan area