Tourism entrepreneurs Peter Farquharson and David Maxwell launched further.space at the NI Leisure Show at Balmoral Park in November, with the aim to install 500 tourist pods throughout the UK and Ireland by 2023.
The start-up firm aims to establish up to 100 micro tourism joint partnerships with landowners and existing tourism ventures, deploying 500 pods in hand-picked locations over the next five years. The company offers business partners a complete tourism support package – from financing and planning support to marketing and booking systems.
further.space is the sister company of Intupod, a manufacturer of multi-purpose aluminium structured pods in Belfast. Each pod is forecast to deliver an annual revenue of £18,000 per year, with 500 pods over five years estimated to generate a total revenue of £9M. A partnership with four pods on one site will generate an annual revenue of £72,000 per year and £360,000 over five years.
CEO of further.space, and former founder of Habitat for Humanity Northern Ireland, Peter Farquharson said: “My background is in creating sustainable global accommodation solutions. While it is well documented that the tourist industry is one of the biggest growth industries in Ireland and the fifth biggest industry in the world, often some of our most attractive natural landscapes suffer from accommodation shortages, limiting local potential to access the tourist pound. Our vision is to empower landowners in spectacular off-the-beaten-track locations to create profitable, sustainable and low maintenance micro tourism businesses on their land, with social and economic benefits for the entire area.” www.further.space
