Cultivating a luxurious ambiance and kindling a bourgeois fantasy of a high-quality lifestyle, glamping has increasingly been viewed a consumption ritual. The purpose of this study is to dig deeper into the composition of ritual scenes in glamping and the symbolic meaning behind them. We obtained 3,176 text reviews and 22,379 photos from Ctrip. Utilizing visual identification and textual mining, this study revealed three categories of ritual scenes in glamping (environmental, activity, and equipment), and four types of ritual symbolism (self-renewal, self-participation, self-presentation, and social connection). The findings highlight that glamping goes beyond simple enjoyment and becomes a way for customers to build social networks and claim a bourgeoisie-lifestyle identity.
1 Introduction
As a safe, socially distanced choice that limits exposure to others while simultaneously facilitating some ritual sense of travel [1], camping, particularly glamping, has garnered the upmost popularity in China in the past three years. Camping, once viewed as a cost-saving activity [2, 3], is seemingly “upgraded” to glamping as a fashionable demonstration of a bourgeois lifestyle, which has been primarily appealed to the middle class [4]. Glamping have offered more than just a leisure option during the pandemic, but a symbolic consumption cultivating a luxurious ambiance and kindling a bourgeois fantasy of a refined, high-quality lifestyle [5]. The bourgeois lifestyle in glamping allows participants to flaunt their wealth, culture, aesthetics, and social status, viewing it as a lifestyle choice that is intertwined with their identities [6]. Glamping, therefore, could be considered as a consumption ritual, given the symbolism and status it represents.
However, the extant studies have predominantly emphasized the leisure needs of campers. Although acknowledging luxury experience and aesthetic enjoyment as additional motivations for glampers [5, 7, 8], the ritual-related motivations that underpin glamping have been largely overlooked. This oversight leads to an incomplete understanding of why glamping is popular among the consumers as a manifestation of social ascent. To our knowledge, no studies have analyzed glamping from the perspective of consumption rituals.
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To address the gap, this study aims to explore the ritual scenes and symbolic meanings in glamping. The study contributes to the overarching literature on tourism and leisure by examining glamping as a consumption practice, with an aim to unearth the deep-rooted motivations behind such engagement. Utilizing large-scale user-generated-contents and automatic data mining techniques, it offers valid and valuable insights for marketing professionals and campsite operators. By interpreting the ritualistic and symbolic significance of glamping activities, tourism operators can leverage our findings to design glamping programs that transcend the provision of luxury amenities, and instead, provide transformative experiences imbued with profound meaning for their guests.
2 Data and Method
This study selected Ctrip (https://www.ctrip.com/), the largest online travel agency (OTA) in China, as the data source. We collected user comment data posted from October 2015 through October 2022, totaling 3,176 text reviews and 22,379 photos. Prior to analysis, the DeepL translation API was employed to convert Chinese text comments into English.
This paper seeks to investigate the rituals associated with glamping through a multifaceted approach that incorporates both textual and image data mining. Firstly, we used Google Vision API for image recognition and identified ritualistic scenes with a confidence score above 0.5, resulting in 703 image tags. Word Mover’s Distance (WMD) was followed to measure tag similarity, and agglomerative clustering grouped these tags into 50 categories. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) further reduced these categories into 16 ritual scenes. Secondly, Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic modeling was adopted to extract and elucidate the glampers’ ritual symbolism inherent in textual data. We finalized nine topics to achieve optimal interpretability. Lastly, an exploration of the interplay between ritualistic scenes and ritual symbolism in the realm of glamping is undertaken.
3 Result
3.1 Ritual Scenes
Sixteen distinct ritual scenes were extracted and grouped based on image identification labeling and similarity clustering. We subsequently categorized these scenes into three overarching types: environmental, activity-related, and equipment-related (See Fig. 1).
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Environmental scenes are the most frequent scenes in glamping. Drawing from the insights of servicescape research [9, 10], we have identified seven distinctive scenes related to the environment of campground. Among these, six pertain to ambient attributes, including landforms and architecture, bodies of water, flora, natural surroundings, fauna, and public facilities, while the seventh is design factor, namely decorative aesthetics. Not only the natural environment and decorative aesthetics are important, but campers also value the activities in glamping. Based on image recognition and classification, we extract seven types of activity-related scenes, namely outdoor recreations, take photos with others, food and beverage, road transportation, barbecue, music performance, and aero adventure. Equipment-related scenes encompass furnishings and outdoor apparatus tailored for glamping. At times, individuals pursue a sense of ritual through the details of the surrounding items to reflect the meaning of life.
3.2 Ritual Symbolism
We discerned nine topic themes from online comments, which we subsequently distilled into four symbolic representations of ritual, specifically self-renewal, self-participation, self-presentation, and social connections.
Self-renewal: The concept of self-renewal finds expression across three distinct topics. The pivotal terms of Topic 1, “refresh” and “escape,” underscore glamping’s role as an escape from the rigors of daily work and a means to slow down, thereby affording respite to the mind. Topic 9 accentuates the concepts of “recreation” and “relaxation”. Glamping, as a micro-vacation retreat, negates the need for elaborate getaways and instead enables individuals to bask in relaxation and unfettered freedom. The crux of Topic 3 hinges upon “convenience” and “enjoyment,” indicating that many visitors enjoying the services offered by the campsite.
Self-Participation: There are four topics are included. Topic 2 Fireside night talk relates to people’s longing for an idyllic pastoral life. Topic 4 spotlights “climb” and “ropeway” as high-frequency terms, indicative of the penchant among outdoor enthusiasts for mountain climbing and hiking coupled with camping. Topic 7 accentuates the thrill and distinctive encounters associated with glamping. Several campsites offer activities like desert motorcycling, desert skiing, and off-road vehicles. Topic 8 is centered around the core concept of being “close to nature.”
Self-Presentation: The facet of self-presentation within camping aligns with Topic 5, underscored by keywords like “photo-taking”. A subset of campers aspires to project an image of “refined living” on social platforms. The core of Topic 5 revolves around capturing striking views. For these campers, the essence lies not in the camping experience itself but rather in the ambiance and opulence that their photos convey to their online audiences.
Social Connections: Topic 6, encompassing the largest proportion among all topics, encapsulates the symbolism of social connections within the realm of glamping. This topic is characterized by keywords associated with vacationing alongside family and friends.
3.3 Integration of Ritual Scenes and Ritual Symbolism
As delineated in Fig. 1, the analysis reveals distinctive associations between ritual symbolism and ritual scenes. Firstly, the ritual symbolism of self-renewal finds most resonance in environmental ritual scenes, including bodies of water, public facilities, decorative aesthetics, and outdoor apparatus. Secondly, the ritual symbolisms of self-participation and self-presentation are depicted through an integration of both environmental and activity scenes, with unique landscapes alongside a medley of activities such as barbecues and music performance. Thirdly, the ritual symbolism of social connections primarily harmonizes with visual depictions of equipment scene and activities reflecting personal interactions, including food preparation, photo-taking, and musical performance activities.
Fig. 1.
Integration of ritual scenes and ritual symbolism
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4 Discussion and Conclusion
Our study sheds light on glamping’s consumption rituals and the hidden symbolism behind them. Current studies, despite examining glamping from a ritual perspective, overlook the potential connection between glamping and conspicuous consumption. For instances, the latest study by Xiang identifies glamping as a form of ritual interaction; yet still focuses on the positive emotions and flow experiences brought about by glamping [11]. Another study highlights the role of group interactions and social identity construction in achieving this sense of communitas but ignored the self-presentation motivation in social interaction [12]. Our research provides a deeper understanding of glamping motivations compared to existing studies. It suggests that self-presentation is an additional reason for glamping; people aim to enhance their image through conspicuous consumption. Additionally, our study uncovers that bourgeois consumption rituals do not solely hinge upon the display of economic capital; cultural capital, such as aesthetics and taste, equally functions as a conduit for self-expression.
Our research holds significant implications for tourism operators and destination management organizations to incorporate well-designed ritualistic elements within glamping experiences. With the middle class more keenly recognizing the intertwined extrinsic and intrinsic value of glamping, it emerges as both a rite of intensification and a rite of passage. The former revolves around the divergence between the experience and environment of glamping and the mundane everyday life. The latter signifies the perspective that glamping serves as a means of elevating one’s bourgeois status. Consequently, there exist two avenues for shaping glamping products: one entails enriching the visitor’s experiential journey and fostering spiritual enrichment, while the other involves offering avenues for identity cultivation through rituals.
Though novel, the study has limitations. It doesn’t entirely rule out the pandemic’s impact, leaving questions about whether its popularity stems from short-term stimulus or long-standing societal demands. Additionally, the absence of demographic data in social media necessitates further research to determine if identity-seeking is influenced by social media or indicative of middle-class identity concerns. Moreover, future research can explore how various social media platforms influence the expression of glamping consumption rituals.
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