Youth hostel potential ‘vast’

Press, 26 September 1988, Page 2

Youth hostel potential ‘vast’

By

DEBORAH McPHERSON

Youth hostels in New Zealand had a' vast potential to attract more Swedish and Japanese backpackers, said the Minister of Consumer Affairs, Mrs Shields, in Christchurch. Mrs Shields was addressing the annual general meeting of the Youth Hostel Association on Saturday. She is the association’s vice-president. The number of hostel nights used by Swedish visitors had nearly tripled in the last three years, and those of Japanese visitors had nearly doubled, she said. “The potential for marketing New Zealand as a tourist destination in those countries is vast.” While resort owners might be feeling the pinch, numbers of tourist arrivals continued to in-

crease, and the youth hostels were obviously benefiting, she said. Youth hostels had an advantage over more luxurious accommodation, in that hostellers talked to each other, exchanging information about accommodation, Mrs Shields said. The Y.H.A., which was in its fifty-seventh year, was going through a period of evaluation and changes, said Mrs Shields. The aim of providing inexpensive short-term accommodation for travellers remained the same, but youth hostels needed also to interact with the modern business world, she said. The Y.H.A. is considering changing its structure to enable more members to participate in _ running the association.