Hardly any other company in the accommodation industry has suffered as much from the Corona measures as youth hostels. What about after the restrictions are lifted?
Magdeburg (dpa/sa) - The youth hostels in Saxony-Anhalt are feeling the upswing again after the vast majority of corona restrictions have been lifted. "We are noticing that school classes in particular finally want to travel again, but families and club groups are also visiting our youth hostels again," said Simon Bischoff, director of the German Youth Hostel Association in Saxony-Anhalt. Around 150,000 overnight stays were counted this year by the end of August. That is around 40,000 more than at the same time in 2021. Before the Corona crisis, the association counted around 315,000 overnight stays for the entire year in 2019.
According to Bischoff, schools are the strongest group of guests with around 57,000 overnight stays, followed by families with around 35,000, other groups with around 25,000 overnight stays and individual travelers or couples. All twelve youth hostels in the national association are currently open again, according to Bischoff.
"We are seeing a strong catch-up effect on school trips and unfortunately we could not offer a place to all schools that wanted to make a class trip to us," he explained. He hopes that this development will continue until the end of the school trip season at the end of October. For this purpose, the corona development is observed closely. "This year, too, we have adjusted the cancellation conditions for school trips, so that in the case of Corona cases in the class, cancellations can be made free of charge up to the point of arrival."
By the end of the year, Bischoff expects 210,000 overnight stays and thus a strong slowdown in the positive trend. On the one hand, this is due to the expected corona situation in autumn, but also to the rising prices for energy and living expenses in general. Potential vacationers would then possibly save on the expenses for a trip. "These dark clouds in the forecast for the second half of the year also apply to 2023."
