Why do we open the first glamping not in Russia?

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We thought hard about where the first glamping should be opened. Naturally, at first, we looked for options in Russia: in Vladivostok, Khabarovsk and at lake Baikal. We considered Karelia and the Moscow region, but in the end we did not choose Russia. Why?

According to the financial model, the payback period for glamping in Russia is about 5 years, while abroad this can take 1-2 years. But there are other factors that we will discuss below. Well, in the meantime, let's think about the country to open business at first? This is very serious issue.

As IT specialists, we decided to approach the choice of a country using mathematical calculations and a system of indicators. To begin with, we have selected the top 28 countries in the world according to the size of annual tourist flow. France was at the first place with a tourist flow of 86.9 million tourists a year. Then, Spain and the USA. Russia, by the way, was at the 15th place with an indicator of 24.6 million tourists a year.

But the tourist flow size did not seem to us a convincing factor, and we chose 14 additional parameters that affect the fixed costs and convenience of doing business. The main ones are:

Earnings from foreign tourism

Easiness of doing business
(Ease of doing business index)

Average expenses of one tourist per a trip

A number of hotels and glampings

Average salary in the country

Amount of taxes in the country

Cost of opening a company

National security

Then, we compiled a table with countries and all indicators, and calculated the country’s attractiveness coefficient for opening a glamping using a special formula (our know-how). Finally, all of a sudden, Georgia found to be at the first place where the number of tourists is only 7.5 million people per year. Additional factors for choosing this country were the similarity of mentality, the absence of a language barrier, and the tourism boom that Georgia is experiencing currently.

Jvari Monastery near Mtskheta, the ancient capital of Georgia

Well, the country has been chosen, let’s go to Georgia to explore and get acquainted with the local atmosphere of doing business and options of a place for location of glamping which will be offered to us.

By the way, about the land. In Russia, we are not given land yet (we can buy or rent it anyway), and, for example, in Georgia, Spain, and Germany, parcels are being offered to us already. Only Buryatia has met us halfway in Russia which has allocated land and signed an agreement with our company. There are oral agreements in Primorye, but we can't reach the signing of the agreement for six months, and the season is already beginning. We have money for opening, but without support or co-investment in the Far East it is not advisable to open a camping. Why?

Here is a simple example with the same investment for launching a point:

1

Lake Baikal (Russia)
600 thousand tourists a year, co-investment in the amount of 1 million rubles is given.
2

Primorye (Russia, Far East)
800 thousand tourists a year, but there is no co-investment :(
3

Georgia
7 million tourists, co-investment in the amount of 5 million is given for the territory development, additional co-investment at the rate of 6% per annum with a minimum of requirements and collateral.

Rabat Fortress, Akhaltsikhe

What do you think, where is it more profitable for investors to invest money? And where will the investment pay off faster? Despite this, we love the nature of Russia and want to launch glamping here, but we are very careful about this decision.