Introduction
Welcome to the April edition of the European Hostel Cooperation Newsletter.
There is a slightly different format this time around, mainly as a result of the
5th European Hostel Meeting which took place at the start of the month in Krakow.
As well as being a fun and interesting couple of days in Poland, the meeting also raised a
couple of issues for the EHC that we thought we would use this edition of the newsletter to address.
As well as the focus on the meeting and the issues raised by it, there is as always a
round up of news articles that we thought were interesting for those in the hostel and
low budget travel scene. Please remember that these newsletters are your space as well,
and if there is ever anything you wish to see included in future editions please do not
hesitate to get in contact…you can email Paul directly at paul.scraton@gomio.com
5th European Hostel Meeting – Review and Response
5th European Hostel Meeting Review
As with Prague in 2005, we have compiled a complete review of the meeting in Krakow,
with notes and downloads from the presentations and seminars, as well as a photo
gallery from the weekend. Hopefully nothing too incriminating! You can find the
review of the 5th European Hostel Meeting
here.
We would also like to take the opportunity afforded to us by the EHC Newsletter
to say a big thank you to everyone in Krakow who helped make the weekend a success.
In no particular order they are: Nathan and Magda from Nathan’s Villa ( www.nathansvilla.com),
Piotr and the rest of the boys at the Dizzy Daisy (www.hostel.pl), the folks from
Packed Magazine (www.packedmagazine.com), See Krakow Tours, the staff of the
Manggha (www.manggha.krakow.pl), and all the other hostels in Krakow
for their help in accommodating the delegates.
Also, big thanks go to all of those people who spoke at the meeting –
details of all the workshops can be found on the review page – and of course,
all the people who came, took part, and partied with us in Krakow.
6th European Hostel Meeting... Interlaken, Switzerland
We are delighted to announce that the 6th European Hostel Meeting venue has already been decided,
and that it will take place on the 24th March 2007 in Interlaken, Switzerland.
The Swiss Backpackers (www.swissbackpackers.ch)
network have agreed to host the event next year, and from David Buehler’s invitation speech in Krakow,
it is clear that preparations are well under way.
The content of the meeting is still being organised by the EHC Office, and although
we are still a good time away from next March, we would love to hear your suggestions
for the next meeting, including ideas for workshops and things you would like to be discussed.
Response: European Hostel Cooperation versus GOMIO.COM
One subject that came up a number of times in Krakow was the issue of the
EHC and GOMIO.COM, and where the distinction between the two lay.
In recognition that this was a topic, Danielle Brumfitt and Katrin Schoenig
(the Acting General Manager and the General Manager respectively) have put together the following article on the subject.
The European Hostel Cooperation presents... GOMIO.COM
Wait a minute… aren’t these one and the same? We’ve heard your confusion and now
to set the record straight once and for all...
Two years ago 15 European hostel companies saw a gap in the market. Despite a
thriving and somewhat healthy hostel market and the appearance of new hostels,
companies and websites consistently – there remained no unified network for the
scene as a whole. No platform to unite the industry and represent it both within
these borders and beyond. With this, the European Hostel Cooperation (EHC) was born.
The birth of the EHC established a cooperative network, run now by 20 hostel owners and
open to any hostel, with the ongoing aims of:
- An impartial, independent institution, who in the future can represents hostels to third parties
- A marketing tool for the low budget travel industry
- An information network between hostels in Europe
- A service provider for hostels
- An independent portal for low budget travellers
- The host of an annual European hostel meeting
The principles above seek to unite the continent, giving a voice to promote and educate
about the industry we so love. With the strength of this industry, the aim is to make
this voice loud enough to be heard not only by one another and our traveller, but by governments,
regulation boards, press... the list goes on. The obvious question arises – how will the EHC,
a non cost-earning entity – who is clearly focused on networking, providing resources and
promotion, going to afford to do this? Ladies and gentlemen, the European Hostel Cooperation
proudly presents... GOMIO.COM.
GOMIO.COM is the booking portal website of the EHC. Not only does it fund the activities of
the EHC – including a head office dedicated to development and customer service - it
provides hostel owners with a choice in booking engines across Europe. This industry is
no different then others in that it requires competition to remain healthy and allow hostel
owners to stay independent. What makes GOMIO.COM unique is its approach: no hostel commissions.
GOMIO.COM is a portal that offers you a chance to put your beds online without losing overhead on
an already low priced bed. To assure these prices can be kept low on your own website as well
(why would we take a commission when you’ve invested your money on your own website?).
GOMIO.COM also offers credit card confirmed reservation pages to be installed on hostels websites.
Alongside this lengthy list of hostels around Europe, we are working daily to service the traveller
by providing a choice of hostels as well as community aspect including forums, a journal, up to
date news, country guides, links and a growing list of extras. By providing up to date information
to both hostel owners/managers & travellers alike, GOMIO.COM seeks to be a resource and
booking centre both here and abroad.
Our focus in the head office of the European Hostel Cooperation has been two fold –
to continue our efforts of unifying this vast and individual market, while providing
hostel owners a fair and competitive option and expanding our activities and reach consistently.
So far the EHC has been involved in providing information to various networks across
the continent, we have been present in problem solving and idea sharing with the Independent
Scottish network, the German Backpackers Network, the Swiss Backpackers association, the
network of Independent Hostels in Ireland etc. We’ve assisted hostels, by researching and
providing information to those who need help to petition their local governments. For the new
hostels on the market, we provide contacts & information needed in the establishment of a new business.
Our monthly newsletter seeks to find the allusive information of this market and provide it each
hostel individually for knowledge and strength and provide a platform for open communication.
The annual European Hostel Meeting has sought to bring together a unique sharing of ideas,
principles and networking that make this industry so strong. Each year we listen to what you
have to say about what you need and what you want and work to make this a reality.
With the continued success of GOMIO.COM, the EHC is now able to focus on a campaign to promote
European hostels and hostelling in general, both within the continent and abroad, and is right
now focusing on a European wide research project to discover information on budget travellers that
can be of use to both the EHC and the hostels individually (see below).
These projects have been a direct result of feedback from members and shareholders on the
focus they would like the EHC to take. The European Hostel Cooperation’s core aims remain the same.
Over the past two years some have had more focus then others. Some have been more successful then others.
This will continue to fluctuate based on what this industry demands, and what feedback we receive from you.
GOMIO.COM has been key in assuring these activities continue and grow, while also
guaranteeing a healthy competitive market – full of choice for both the small and large hostel owner.
It’s the age old “chicken & egg” debate – which came first, which needs to come first?
In the end though the two are separate, they depend on one another for success and most
importantly are honoured to work with you to promote and strengthen this industry both now and for years to come.
Danielle Brumfitt & Katrin Schoenig
Response: European Hostel Research Project
Another response to the meeting, which was also discussed in Prague, was a
research project that can give information to the EHC and the hostels in Europe
about the travellers staying in hostels and using websites such as GOMIO.COM. The research
project will take place in two stages, in ‘high’ and ‘low’ season, and will be carried out both
online and over hostels receptions.
The EHC will use GOMIO.COM to carry out the online survey, and will be asking hostels if they
would be interested in helping carry out the survey in their own houses. The idea is to reach as
broad a range of travellers as possible, in order that the results that come out from the
survey are as useful as possible.
The results of the survey will be published online, through the European Hostel Newsletter
and at the 6th European Hostel Meeting in Interlaken.
We would love to hear from you about this project in a number of ways. Firstly we want to
know what information is important to you. In the workshop in Prague a number of ideas
were discussed, but any new ideas are always welcome. Secondly, any hostel that would be
willing to promote the survey in their receptions would be greatly appreciated.
We think this is important as a purely online survey would not give a complete picture of the market.
If you are interested, or have any questions or suggestions, please send an email to
paul.scraton@gomio.com.
Response: What do you think?
We have mentioned this above, but we want to highlight it one more time.
For all of you who were with us in Krakow, we would like to hear your views on
the meeting – positive and negative – so that we can plan for next year with your
ideas ringing in our ears. The idea of the EHC, be it the meeting or this newsletter,
was never to be a ‘one way street’... it is your meeting, and this is your space.
For comments and suggestions on the Hostel Meeting, either in Krakow or for next time around,
please contact Acting General Manager of the EHC Danielle Brumfitt at
danielle@gomio.com.
If you would like to contribute or make suggestions for the EHC newsletter, please contact
Paul Scraton, newsletter editor, at paul.scraton@gomio.com.
This can be something you wish to communicate to the European hostel scene,
or just an idea for something you would like covered... get in touch!
Other News
There is already a lot to read in this month’s newsletter, especially with the
whole review of the Hostel Meeting in Krakow, but there were some other things
from the European travel and tourism scene that caught our eye and thought some
of you might find interesting:
International Development in Budget Accommodation
An article from the San Francisco Chronicle from the 9th April discusses developments in
low budget accommodation around the world, and highlights the trend which they
call ‘trickle-down boutique’ or ‘no-frills chic’. Some of the developments the
article talks about is the move of hotel companies into the low budget market, including Accor and Easyhotel.
Interestingly, the journalist appears to believe that these trends have come
from the hotel groups, rather than recognising that many of these things have been
developing within the low budget scene, especially in hostels.
You can read the article online at:
www.sfgate.com
Do ‘Backpackers’ Exist?
If you are reading this on your reception computer then you can probably look up
from your screen to find the answer, but according to an academic at the James Cook
University in Australia, the term ‘backpacker’ is now defunct. His study into
Backpackers in his part of the world suggests that 95% of travellers staying
at ‘backpacker hostels’ would reject the label ‘backpacker’ being applied to themselves.
The key point Professor Prideaux makes in the article is as follows: “If young people do
not see themselves as backpackers, are current marketing messages being misdirected?”
An interesting debate, and hopefully the EHC research project can cast some light on
this issue when it comes to travellers in Europe.
You can read the article online:
news.ninemsn.com.au
Capitals of Culture in 2010
Congratulations go to the German city of Essen, Pecz in Hungary, and Istanbul in
Turkey for being named European Capitals of Culture for 2010. There are three
winners because of a change to the rules for 2009, which stated that there would be one
Capital of Culture for both ‘old’ and ‘new’ member states of the European Union.
For 2010 that meant Germany and Hungary.
Istanbul beat Kiev to the vote for ‘Non-EU’ Capital of Culture, although according to
the article on Deutsche Welle (see link below), 2010 will be the last year that non-EU
cities can take part in the project, which is in part funded by the European Union.
The article from Deutsche Welle, on the three Capitals of Culture for 2010 can be
found online at: www.dw-world.de
Impact of Terrorism and Natural Disasters on Tourism
At the meeting in Krakow, one of the workshops involved the topic of ‘Coping with Sudden Catastrophes’
and involved hostel owners and managers from London and Madrid telling of their experiences
when their cities were attacked. We found an interesting article on this topic from the
Travel Daily News, that discusses what impact things such as Terrorism and Natural Disasters have on tourism in general.
The article comes from a presentation at the ITB in Berlin, and argues that although
there is always a short term impact, “tourists over a period of time increasingly accept
the possibility of a crisis as a given and permanent risk.” One of the major impacts of
various natural and man-made disasters, has been that travellers book ever later,
influencing their decisions on what is going on around them.
The United Nations World Tourism Organisation agrees, arguing that the increasing
number of ‘threats’ means that their impact on tourism is lessening. The one thing that
the UNWTO is concerned about however, is the potential for an increase in epidemics, such as SARS or Bird Flu.
There is too much information in the article for it all to be included here,
but if you are interested, you can read it all online at:
www.traveldailynews.com
Tourism Statistics
A couple of articles, also from the Travel Daily News, have some information on
travel trends for a couple of countries in the early months of 2006.
Also from the ITB, some interesting news about Russia. Not about visitors to
Russia, but the fact that Russia is one of the fastest growing sources of travellers
in the world, with increases of 22% in 2004 and 11% in 2005. Significant numbers of
these travellers are going to near neighbours such as Finland, China, Poland and the
Baltic States, although recent trends have seen an increase to ‘sun and sand’ destinations,
such as Turkey and Egypt. Read more online at:
www.traveldailynews.com
The other news is of a significant rise in tourists to the Czech Republic.
The Central European country received an increase of around 6% for 2005, a
number which is above average for Europe. The main groups visiting the Czech
Republic are Germans, Brits and Italians, although the country has seen a sharp increase in
visitors from Asia and Eastern Europe. Read more online at:
www.traveldailynews.com
Budget Airlines – New Routes
One of the factors that has boosted tourist numbers in many countries has been the increase
in routes by the budget airlines, and in what is becoming a regular feature of EHC
newsletters we have a round-up of new routes that might be of interest to hostels in the following destinations:
Sky Europe (www.skyeurope.com) announces new routes to
Dubrovnik and Split in Croatia from Prague (Czech Republic).
Ryanair (www.ryanair.com) have increased the
number of destinations available from Frankfurt (Hahn), including Marrakech and Fez (Morocco),
Wroclaw and Krakow (Poland), Verona and Trieste (Italy), Granada and Murcia (Spain), and Kaunas (Lithuania).
The Irish airline also have a number of new routes from Liverpool, to Wroclaw, Poznan and Krakow (Poland),
Kaunas (Lithuania), and Tampere (Finland).
Germanwings (www.germanwings.de) announce two
new routes from Cologne-Bonn, to Pristina (Serbia and Montenegro) and Tirana (Albania).
Norwegian Air (www.norwegian.no) has launched a
new base in Warsaw (Poland), with flights to Nice (France), and Malaga, Alicante and Girona (Spain).
Hostel: The Movie
Maybe not the advertising boost that we would necessarily want, but horror movie ‘Hostel’
has been released across Europe recently, and has even been banned in the Ukraine.
The film is directed by cult horror director Eli Roth, and is produced by Quentin Tarantino,
and tells the tale of three Americans who get themselves into all types of bother when backpacking in Europe.
You can read an interview with the director online at:
www.timeout.com
Contact Us
That’s your lot for the April edition of the EHC newsletter. Hopefully there was something
interesting in there for you, and don’t forget that we love to hear from you.
General contact details for the EHC are as follows:
European Hostel Cooperation Head Office
Johannisstrasse 2
10117 Berlin
Germany
Telephone: +49 (0) 30 2462 8500
Fax: +49 (0) 30 2462 8501
Email: info@gomio.com