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Welcome to the November European Hostel Cooperation newsletter. There are a
number of interesting things going on in the hostel scene and beyond, as well
as some new things at the EHC and with GoMio.com that some of you may be interested
in. As always, we love to hear your feedback and suggestions about the newsletter,
as well as anything that you would like us to include in the December edition,
so do not hesitate to send it in to paul.scraton@gomio.com.
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Hostels in the Media
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Some of our hostel friends have sent us write ups that they received in newspapers
and other media, and so we thought we would include them for the rest of
you to look at. If your hostel has been featured in the media, or you see other
articles relating to hostelling in general that you think is interesting,
send them in. It doesn't matter about the language - whatever it is, we would
love to see it.
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The Hatters Hostel in Manchester asked us to include a couple of links to articles
that appeared in the Manchester Evening News newspaper and on the Manchester
Online website. The hostel, which opened in December 2003 won the Outstanding
Customer Service Award at the Manchester Tourism Awards (Congratulations!),
and also featured in the small business section, with an article highlighting
the Hostel and the growing demand for backpacker accommodation in the city.
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You can see the articles at Manchester Online through the following links:
www.manchesteronline.co.uk/news
www.manchesteronline.co.uk/business
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Also, the good folks at the Yellow Hostel sent us an article from the Guardian
newspaper website, titled 'Why Break the Bank?' from April of last year, which
featured budget travel advice to a number of European cities including Berlin,
Paris, Rome, Haarlem, Madrid and Brussels. As well as cheap eats and nightlife
tips, the article also recommended a number of hostels, including the Yellow
Hostel in Rome, but also the Generator Hostel in Berlin. It is nice that
these 'mainstream' tourism
articles are beginning to recognise that hostels offer a very real budget
alternative to hotels and are not just catering to backpackers.
You can read the whole article online at:
travel.guardian.co.uk
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New Hostel News
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A new hostel has opened that we have been made aware of. If you know
of any new hostels opening, or are opening one yourself, let us know
so that we can introduce your hostel to the rest of the hostelling scene
in Europe.
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In Gdansk, Poland, the guys that run the Gdansk Hostel have opened a new house
called the Baltic Hostel. Visit their website at
www.baltichostel.com
for more details, some photos, and a very nice presentation of the
city and the surrounding area.
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Travel Expos and Fairs
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There are a couple of travel expos and fairs coming up in the next
month or so, the EHILA 2nd Independent Hostels Meeting of the Americas
in Buenos Aires from the 15th - 17th November, and the Backpackers
Expo in Sydney from the 12th - 14th November. Danielle from Europe's
Famous Hostels is attending the expo and conference in Sydney and has
promised to write up a review for the next EHC newsletter.
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The number of expos and fairs focused on backpacker and budget travel is increasing,
which can only be a good thing for the overall promotion of the independent
hostel industry. We would love to hear from other of you who have attended
such events, such as the WYSTC in Madrid or others, because we feel that
it would be good to get an idea of how useful such events are, not only for
organisations such as the EHC, but also other hostel networks and individual
hostels themselves. Let us know what you think, and we will include people's
opinions and experiences in future newsletters to share the ideas around. As
we announced last month, we will be holding our European Hostel Meeting in
Prague in April. There is more information below, and if any of you are interested
in contributing and sharing their knowledge through presentations and workshops
then let us know.
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The links for the upcoming events in Argentina and Australia are:
EHILA, Buenos Aires - www.encuentrohostels.com
Sydney Backpackers Expo - www.backpackersexpo.com
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Irish and Scottish Hostel Meetings
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The Independent Holiday Hostels of Ireland, and the Independent Backpackers
Hostels of Scotland both held network meetings over the last few
weeks and were kind enough to invite members of the European Hostel Cooperation
over to Galway and Inverness respectively to introduce the EHC
and GoMio.com. We just wanted to use the opportunity to say thank-you,
and it was nice to meet everyone and put some names to faces!
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For more information about the two networks you can go to their websites, which are:
Independent Holiday Hostels of Ireland - www.hostels-ireland.com
Independent Backpackers Hostels Scotland - www.hostels-scotland.com
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German Backpackers Network
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Peter from the Odyssee Hostel in Berlin and the Backpacker Network Germany
has an invitation and some information that he wanted to share with
the hostel scene, so here goes.
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"The Backpackers Network Germany is also having its annual meeting, on the
weekend of 26th/27th November, and from Saturday 5pm it has an informal part
that is open to everyone to come and shake some hands and talk some serious business
before it all ends with the infamous, mind-boggling event that is the 'Kitchen
Party'. Now if memory serves me, from the time before when I used to go to house
parties and not clubs, the best place was always the kitchen (closest to the
fridge) so it sounds as if it could be interesting. It might also be that Catherine
Le Nevez from the Lonely Planet might be there to join the fun.
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The venue is the Black Forest Hostel in Freiburg, and if any of you want to come
you need to contact Corinna or Tania asap as space is a little limited accommodation
wise, but I promise, this is not a conference of boring speeches and high
sign up fees, but a chance to get together.
You can contact the Black Forest
Hostel by phone on +49 761 881 7870 or
email backpacker@blackforest-hostel.de
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I also wanted to use the EHC newsletter to let you know some other stuff that
might be of interest to hostel owners that we will presented at the meeting:
- a new tool to control internet access for your guests that works with rechargeable
smart cards whilst at the same time granting free access to websites of your
choice, such as your own homepage, the Backpackers Network, or GoMio.com
;-) - we will be deciding on new members and activities such as marketing for
the next year, and you don't have to be a German hostel to take part in our
website or pocket guide - we have relaunched the website at
www.backpackernetwork.de
that we intend to be a backpacking portal whose content is supplied by the
hostels themselves, which will also support multiple booking forms to be
included in the page free of charge.
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So if any of you have any questions about any of this, just get in contact with
me at headoffice@globetrotterhostel.de and
maybe we'll see each other in Freiburg!
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All the best, Peter"
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Independent Hostel Guide
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The Independent Hostel Guide, published by the Backpackers Press in the
United Kingdom, as well as running the www.independenthostelguide.com
website, is inviting submissions for its 2005 edition, and the editor,
Sam Dalley, asked us to include this in the newsletter in case anybody
was interested.
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The guide, which features over 300 tourist and backpackers hostels throughout
Britain and Europe is now in its fifteenth year and is distributed in its
tens of thousands around the world. The cost of inclusion in the next edition
of the guide, plus 14 months online, is €144, and the deadline for 2005 inclusion
is 20th November. For more information you can contact Sam directly on sam@backpackerspress.com.
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WTO tourism figures 2004
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The World Tourism Organisation (WTO) released the figures it had collected
for 2004 so far and it seems that in general tourism is finally moving
back to the level it was before the combined effects of SARS, September
11th, Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and Foot and Mouth Disease. Not
only was the number of tourist arrivals worldwide 12% higher than the same
period last year, the number of 526 million international tourist arrivals
in a period from January to August is a record.
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The increase however was not quite so spectacular in Europe, with an increase
in tourist arrivals on the continent as a whole growing by 6% on 2003. The
growth was even slower to 'traditional' tourist destinations on the continent
such as Spain (2%), France (0.1%) and Italy (-0.1%) - results blamed on high
prices due to the strong Euro, which makes other 'sun and sand' destinations
such as Turkey (+29%), Egypt (+49%) and Morocco (+17%) seem more attractive.
Central and Eastern Europe however saw a 16% increase - a reflection maybe
on the new member states of the European Union - and Northern Europe (8%)
and the UK (13%) saw good figures as well.
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You can view the whole press release, with an overview of the other continents
of the world as well, at:
www.world-tourism.org
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Budget Airlines
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We've touched on this topic before in previous newsletters, but we found
some interesting articles about budget airlines that we thought you might
be interested in, particularly as a number of the people that use these 'no
frills' airlines
are the same type of people that would be likely to also stay in hostels
and other budget accommodation.
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It seems that in Riga, Latvia, the tourism boom this summer has meant that not
only have they had a record year, but there are not enough beds to accommodate
all the people arriving in the city. There is a debate on as to whether it
is the new routes from Easyjet and Ryanair that are to blame for this increase,
or if Latvia's membership of the European Union has brought more guests to
the city. But whatever the reason, according to the Baltic Times, some hotels
had to stop advertising campaigns because they literally had no space for
the enquiries that came flooding in.
You can see the whole article at:
www.baltictimes.com
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If it is the budget airlines that have influenced this massive increase in Riga, then this would seem like good news for the budget travel industry in places that are included in these airlines schedules. This could be especially good news for Eastern Europe, which is finally being included by the budget airlines: Ryanair doesn't seem too keen, but Jet 2 will be launching routes from the UK to Budapest in December, whilst Germanwings and Air Berlin are about to launch flights to Moscow from Germany and Austria respectively.
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You can see details of Ryanair's new routes to Western Europe, and also the new routes from Jet 2 at:
www.iht.com
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For details of the new budget flights to Russia click on:
www.mosnews.com
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Chinese Tourism Part 2
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An update to the story we included in the October edition of the newsletter about
the potential increase in Chinese tourists to Europe now that the Chinese
Government has given 27 European nations a place on the 'approved list' of
tourist destinations. According to an Associated Press Article that we found
on the Channel News Asia website, the figure of 12 million Chinese tourists
heading on holiday each year will rise, by 2020, to around 100 million, which
could make a fundamental impact on the tourism industry, from the need for
language skills, to awareness that Chinese tradition means that they do not
wished to be in room number four, or placed on the fourth floor.
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So for those of you that work with travel agents, and might be getting some of
these Chinese tour groups in the near future, the moral of the article is
be prepared!
You can read the whole article about the potential impact of Chinese
tourism on the market at:
www.channelnewsasia.com
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The Internet and Tourism
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Some interesting news from the hotel scene in the last few weeks, that
centres on online booking engines and their increasing strength in the market.
Sound familiar? As with the hostel scene, the last few years has seen a massive
growth in third party websites selling hotel beds, which was particularly
important for the hotels during the post-September 11th slump that has continued
through the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the outbreak of SARS.
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However, it seems as if the hotels have had enough of the growing influence these
third party sites are having on their reservations and revenues, with the
Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG) being the first to act, pulling its properties
from Expedia.com and its sister site, Hotels.com. The key complaints of the
IHG was the commissions structure eating into revenues, an unclear pricing
structure on the websites as to where the guests money goes, as well as problems
with hidden fees and inaccurately listed properties. The result, according
to the IHG, was that 'At
the end of the day customers complain about problems during the booking process
not to the online booking service, but they complain to the hotel when they
arrive' (Tampa Bay Business Journal).
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One solution has been that the hotels have themselves launched their own booking
engine, Travelweb, whose partners include the Hilton, Hyatt, Marriot, Intercontinental,
Stanwood and Priceline hotel groups. They made this move in order to gain
some control back over the online sector of the market, not least over commissions,
fees and the way their hotels are represented online. So it seems that the
good ideas are spreading.
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The information above was taken from the following articles:
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'Hoteliers battle websites to regain customer control':
www.mercurynews.com
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'Intercontinental pulls its hotels from Expedia':
www.bizjournals.com
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'On the move: Big hotels shun some travel websites':
www.iht.com
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Ownership of the EHC
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Further to what we announced last month about the new structure and the new
office in Berlin, the EHC would like to announce to everyone that for a
number of reasons our Irish software partner TravelFAT has left the company
as shareholders. Of course, the technical structure and software remains that
which TravelFAT developed but now the technical development work of the EHC
and GoMio.com has been taken over by our team in Berlin in continued cooperation
with the TravelFAT team. This includes the portal itself, the development
of the reservations software, and all related work such as the customised
reservation systems that allow credit card bookings on your own website. What
this also means is that the European Hostel Cooperation is now 100% owned
by hostels, through its 14 hostel partner shareholders.
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GoMio City Pages and Forum
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If you look on GoMio.com you will see a new feature, one that we have
been promising for a long time that has finally arrived.the city guides.
On the maps now the cities that have extra information are a different
colour, to indicate that these cities have more than just the list of hostels.
At the moment we have received city information for about 40 cities
and we are uploading them over the next week.
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As some of you will no doubt see for your own cities, our list is not exhaustive.
So if any of you are interested in introducing your city/town or village
on GoMio, please get in contact with us. This may be especially useful for
those of you in smaller, off the beaten track locations, as it offers one more
way of attracting guests to visit your part of the world. The person you need
to contact if you are interested in presenting your location is Paul at:
paul.scraton@gomio.com.
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Also, there is a Hostel Owners section on the Forum, which you can use to announce
upcoming events in your house. Please keep your posts all to one thread under
the name of your hostel so that it keeps it in order and makes it very clear
to the guests which section is for 'advertising' and which is for discussion
and chat. The Hostel Owners section is designed for hints, tips and upcoming
special events.
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GoMio Management System
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We have made some changes for the management system that those of you
who work with GoMio.com use for your hostel information, allocations
and prices that will be 'uploaded' over the next few days. We have made
it more user-friendly in its layout, and alongside this have solved
most of the problems we had before with browser compatibility for
those of you using Modzilla, Netscape or were working on Apple Mac computers.
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Of course, we have tested it, but there may still be some small problems,
so if any of you are still having problems with the management system,
do not hesitate to get in contact with our head of technical operations
Tom either in the office by phone or send an email to
tom@gomio.com
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Hostel Meeting - Prague 2005
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For those of you that missed the last newsletter, we announced that the
4th European Hostel Meeting will be held in Prague, in April 2005.
After the last meeting, in Rome in June, we decided that we would
hold the meetings earlier in the year, before the main season starts,
and that from now on the meetings would take place on the weekend before
Easter. The location will change each year, with Prague being the venue
for 2005.
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What we want to do for the next meeting is to have a number of small workshops
alongside the main presentations that will allow everyone to focus
on what it is that they feel is important to them, and what they
want to take out from the meeting. We will also have the details
worked out sooner than this year so that people have more chance to plan.
We had a good response last month from a number of hostel owners who want
to host a workshop, and if any of you feel that you have a particular knowledge
or experience that you would like to share, or if you have a suggestion
for themes that you would like to discuss,
contact Katrin in the
office at: katrin.schoenig@gomio.com
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EHC Round-Up
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Otherwise we are working hard as always in the office, providing support
for hostels and working on new features for the portal, as well as further
changes to the management system and booking process as and when they 'go
live'.
One thing we would like to quickly mention is that we are already getting
some bookings for Christmas and New Years, and some of you who are working
with GoMio may like to check what you have online as we know ourselves
that many hostels have special requirements over these holiday periods. We
want to thank all those hostels that have supported us in the first few months
of the EHC, and, as always we love to hear from any of you at our office
in Berlin.
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European Hostel Cooperation GmbH
Johannisstrasse 2
10117 Berlin, Germany
Tel: +49 (0) 30 2462 8500
Fax: +49 (0) 30 2462 8501
Email: info@gomio.com
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Thanks again, and we hope that everything is going well wherever in Europe you are!
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The EHC Team.
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