Introduction

Welcome to the January/February edition of the European Hostel Cooperation newsletter. Hopefully there will be something that catches your interest, and please remember, if you have anything that you would like us to include in future editions of the newsletter, please send them to paul.scraton@gomio.com.

The details for the 5^th European Hostel Meeting to be held in Krakow from the 31^st March until the 2^nd April have been finalised, and as we’d love to see you there we thought we should let you know! Below is an overview of what will be going on in Poland over the weekend, and you can find a complete rundown of the details of the meeting on the Hostel Meeting Page

We chose Krakow as the location for the meeting for a number of reasons. The first reason was the city itself. Krakow is one of central Europe’s most beautiful cities, and a fine place to spend a weekend. We also believed that its central location was important to give as many people as possible the opportunity to come. Finally, Krakow has one of the fastest growing hostel markets anywhere in Europe, and so we thought there was no better place to host the 5th European Hostel Meeting.

The meeting itself will be hosted by the Manggha Centre for Japanese Art and Technology, one of Krakow’s finest modern buildings, with a stunning location on the banks of the Vistula River overlooking the Wawel Castle. There is more information on the meeting homepage, or you can check out the Manggha website at www.manggha.krakow.pl

The meeting will take place on Saturday April 1^st, and will be a full day of activities that we hope will be interesting, informative and useful. Alongside the presentation detailing the last years activities of the EHC, we have organised a number of workshops covering some important themes relating to the European hostelling scene. The topics for the workshops include Quality in Low Budget Tourism, Communication and Media Strategies for Hostels, Ecological Tourism and Hostels, Hostel Expansion, and Coping with Sudden Catastrophes.

Alongside the workshops, the meeting will also include an open forum and discussion on the issue of Yield Management and Hostel Reservations, as well as an afternoon flyer exchange and plenty of opportunities for everyone to get together and meet some old faces and new friends.

You can find a more detailed rundown on the presentations, workshops and discussions taking place over the day here.

Of course, the 5^th European Hostel Meeting is not just about, well, the meeting. There are also a number of other activities that we have organised surrounding the main event.

On the Friday evening there will be welcome drinks at the Old St Nicks Bar at the Nathan’s Villa hostel (www.nathansvilla.com), so those travelling to Krakow can kick back and relax after a day on the road (or in the air!). On the Saturday evening, after a day of presentations and workshops, there is of course the Hostel Party, which will be taking place in one of Krakow’s newest and hippest clubs, the Midgard (www.klubmidgard.pl).

On Sunday we have been kindly invited for breakfast at one of Krakow’s newest hostels, the City Hostel, and this will also be the pick-up point for the two Sunday options that you might wish to take part in. Firstly, there is GOAL-Mio – the First European Hostel Football Championships, some five-a-side football for anyone who feels like sweating off the effects of the night before. Also we have organised the opportunity to take a tour to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Especially for the trip to Auschwitz, it would be good if people could let us know of their interest in taking part in the tour on the registration form, so that we can get an idea about numbers.

The price for taking part in the 5^th European Hostel Meeting is €60 per person for members of GOMIO.COM, and €90 for non-members. You can find the registration form here.

Of course, if you have any further questions for us, or require more information, then do not hesitate to send us an email to info@gomio.com. The hostel meeting page has information about finding accommodation in Krakow, as well as links to city and transport information. You can find it here.

We’d also like to take this opportunity to thank the guys at the Dizzy Daisy Hostel, Nathan’s Villa, and the City Hostel, for all their help in organising what promises to be a fun and interesting weekend in Krakow. Cheers guys!

Michael Lottes from the Lollis Homestay in Dresden contacted us this month to pass on some information which might be of interest to whoever it is at your hostel that has the task of distributing flyers around Europe:

As many of you might know, a number of the German hostels have been sending their flyers out together twice a year, which they have found saves not only time and work, but money – as much as 50%. The system works by hostels sending their total amount of flyers they wish to distribute to the Lollis Homestay in Dresden, where they pack them together, address them, and send them out again to hostels all over Europe. The system worked so well, that they have decided to open the Flyer Exchange to everyone.

There is more information online at www.flyerexchange.de.vu, the login codes are User: test, and Password: test. Michael adds that in order for the flyers to be sent out in May so that they can be in place before the season, they need to arrive in Dresden no later than April 1^st. Of course, if you have more questions about the flyer exchange, you can always email Michael at: lolli@lollishome.de.

The Swiss Backpackers Network have just completed their review of all the hostels in their network for 2005, and produced some numbers that might be of interest. The 26 houses involved in the Swiss Backpackers Network had, between them, 275,000 overnight stays in 2005. This was a 10% increase in guests on 2004.

Of these 275,000 overnight stays, they discovered that ¾ of all their guests were from outside of Switzerland, with the largest groups being the Americans and Canadians. They also noticed, when comparing the numbers of the year before, an ever increasing number of guests from Asia.

The number of Swiss guests staying in Swiss hostels rose by 2% to 26% in 2005, a trend that shows that more and more Swiss nations are choosing to stay in the Backpacker Network hostels when they travel through Switzerland.

For 2006, the Swiss Backpacker Network would also like to welcome two new members, the Gemmi Lodge in Kandersteg, which opening in the August of last year, as well as the YMCA Basel, which has been newly renovated.

The Blue List from Lonely Planet is a new book that has just been published that, in their own word, “captures the world’s hottest trends, destinations, journeys and experiences for the year ahead.” According to the Blue List, four of the hippest hostels on the planet are to be found in Europe.

The top ten published in the book include the Stranger Hostel in Krakow, the Circus in Berlin, and the Home in Valencia. The highest placed European hostel also happened to be the number one hostel overall: The Celica Hostel in Ljubljana. The hippest hostel in the world according to the Lonely Planet.

A whole pile of new hostels have made themselves known to us at the EHC over the last month, so here’s a quick rundown. Don’t forget, if you have a new hostel, or have completed renovations, or just want to tell us something, do not hesitate to get in touch.

Two new hostels in the Baltics are the Tallinn Backpackers in Tallinn, and the Dome Hostel in Riga (www.domehostel.com). Here in Berlin a new hostel is opening called the Three Little Pigs (www.three-little-pigs.de), whilst in December in Budapest there was another new hostel opening its doors, the Colors Hostel Budapest (www.colorsbudapesthostel.hu).

An article we came across in the Scotsman online might be of interest to any Scottish hostels that might have missed it, and anyone else who is interested in the movements of the hostel scene in Edinburgh.

The article details a new £3 million development in the India Buildings, as well as a £10 million hostel in Cowgate, and explores that rise of hostelling in the Scottish capital. You can read the whole article online, and it can be found at: news.scotsman.com

As you might remember, we mentioned ‘packed magazine’ in a previous newsletter, a new free backpackers and independent traveller publication for Central Europe. The guys behind the magazine contacted us, and asked if we could include a message in the next newsletter.

At the moment they are starting to offer advertising packages for the first edition of the magazine. They have a dummy issue and the rate card is ready, so if you are interested in advertising in packed then you should contact Gerald from the magazine at sales@packedmag.com, or visit the website at www.packedmag.com.

Many of you know Geo Oliver and his PHOTOhype project, the ‘Point of Travelling’ exhibition as appeared in hostels all over Europe in the last few years. PHOTOhype is now publishing books, and ‘The Point of Travelling: Book One’ is available now.

It is 48 pages of black and white photographs, and the print run is a limited edition of 1,000 copies. It includes stories and quotes from the travellers throughout, and the online price for advance orders in €23. You can get more information, as well as details of how to get hold of a copy, online at: www.PHOTOhype.com.

The TNT Magazine Travel show is taking place in London on the 18th March. The TNT Travel is aimed at the Antipodean community in the UK, providing information and advice on travelling in the UK and Europe. All kinds of companies will be in London showing what they can offer, and the event takes place at the New Connaught Rooms in London, entry free.

If any of you are attending the event as an exhibitor, we would be interested on your views on taking part in such a travel show, so we can include it in a future newsletter and others can decide if this is something they would like to get involved with in the future. You can get more information on the TNT Magazine travel show at: www.tntmagazine.com

The World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) has published its results of global tourism trends for 2005, and their predictions for 2006. The overall figures for 2005 show a global increase in tourism of 5.5% on 2004, although growth in Europe was not as high, with figures for the continent as a whole showing an increase of 4%.

Within Europe, some of the largest growth figures for tourist arrivals during 2005 could be found in Turkey (20%), Serbia and Montenegro (27%), Latvia (20%), Lithuania (15%), and Estonia (7%). The largest increases in Western Europe were found in Germany (6%), the UK (10%), and Switzerland (6%).

The UNWTO predicts a similar global growth for 2006, with the overall increase in tourism predicted to be around 4-5% on 2005. However, the UNWTO recognises that there are certain circumstances that create uncertainty in predicting tourism figures, namely the continued threat of terrorism, and the further spread of avian flu.

You can read an overview of the figures, with detail on the results for all the regions of the world, online at: www.hotelmarketing.com

Some new budget airline routes have been announced recently, which may be interesting for those hostels in the following destinations:

Blue Air (www.blueair-web.com) have announced a new route, starting in February, between Bucharest (Romania) and Verona (Italy).

In March, Germanwings (www.germanwings.de) will be launching two new routes. The first is from Cologne-Bonn (Germany) to Dubrovnik (Croatia), whilst the second is between Stuttgart (Germany) and Moscow (Russia).

In April Ryanair (www.ryanair.com) will be starting a whole pile of new routes including 16 from Dublin, including Krakow (Poland), Bratislava (Slovakia), Salzburg (Austria), Gothenburg (Sweden) and Malmo (also Sweden). Alongside those, Ryanair will also be launching five new routes from Brussels (Charleroi), to Faro (Portugal), Nimes (France), Valencia (Spain), Salzburg (Austria) and Malaga (Spain).

In May, FlyGlobeSpan (www.flyglobespan.com) will begin flights from Glasgow in Scotland to Athens and Heraklion in Greece.

So that’s your lot for this edition of the European Hostel Cooperation Newsletter. Below you can find details of how to contact us, or have an explore of the EHC page hosting this newsletter. Please remember, if you have anything that you would like to see in future editions of the newsletter, or need to contact us for any reason whatsoever, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

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

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