Our HND Travel & Tourism Management second year students had the great opportunity of meeting owner and founder of The Secret Garden Glamping, Derry Green today.

Derry's highly successful business won Start Up of the Year at this year's Lancashire Tourism Awards and has recently been featured on E4's Celebs Go Dating and Channel 4’s Four in a Bed.

Nominated for Businessman of the Year at this year's Great British Business Awards, Derry spoke to our students about the customer journey, marketing strategies and ways of growing your business, which tied in nicely to their research project into post pandemic business recovery in the accommodation sector.

The luxury glamping site based in Skelmersdale is so successful that you can’t get a booking until January 2024! It is also in the running for Glamping Site of the Year for 2023.

Derry said: “I love talking about the glamping business, because the more I talk about it, it helps me to refocus on certain aspects of the business that need updating.

“The students were great and were interested in the business and I enjoyed focusing on people and how if you’re enthusiastic as a business people will buy into it.”

Derry started up The Secret garden Glamping with just £6,000 and within a year it had a turnover of over £1 million. Now, the business is valued between £4-5 million.

The learners found the talk very useful.

Student, Beth Davies said: “I enjoyed the chat with Derry as it was interesting to learn how he created something so successful. It was very inspiring for the group to see that you can create something so great from a small idea and it was nice to learn some tips on different management and promotion styles.”

Demi Reynolds added: “This information was helpful for my current unit as it helped me gain insights on how a business can be expanded. The talk also helped me learn how the hospitality industry was affected due to Covid-19 and how it is all now on the rise.”

Derry will be coming back at the end of the month to be part of a conference aimed at Level 3 learners progressing into Higher Education.

Arrangements will also be made for the current HND students to visit the glamping site in the New Year to get a close up look at the business.