Youth tourist
| Youth tourist | |
|---|---|
| legal form | VEB |
| founding | 1975 |
| Seat | Berlin, capital of the GDR , German Democratic Republic |
| Branch | Tourism, leisure |
Jugendtourist was a travel agency of the GDR youth organization FDJ , which was founded in 1975. The institution's task was to organize and promote national and international youth tourism for young people under the age of 27 at reduced prices, with compromises in comfort and of course within the framework of the applicable travel restrictions .
In cooperation with the German Youth Hostel Association in the Federal Republic, Jugendtourist was responsible, among other things, for booking youth hostels in the GDR for citizens from the West.
prehistory
The youth tourist department of the GDR travel agency has been offering trips to socialist countries since 1960 . These were offered and sold by employees of the youth tourism department in the travel agencies on certain days previously announced.
On the registration form issued by the travel agency there was a line “ Personal data ” with “Affiliation to party and mass organizations” which the participant had to fill out. So the tour guide already knew before the trip, who SED - Member was, and could form a party group. In fact, the party groups during holiday trips were both traveling the travel agency as well as youth tourist. In some vacation spots, such as Kawarna (1972), there was a person who had to monitor vacationers from the GDR. His name was representative.
history
1975 Foundation of the VEB Jugendtourist. The travel agencies were state service companies and these were also referred to as the state-owned company (VEB). The VEB addition for Jugendtourist was not in the company name and was therefore not common.
With the start of the new company , Jugendtourist has published a 50-page brochure detailing the travel routes and length of stay in the six countries on the front page . The journey to the neighboring countries of ČSSR and Poland was 3 to 10 days , the other four countries were reached by plane and the journey there was usually 14 days. The brochure also contains information on the 6 countries and information on the travel destinations.
Jugendtourist offered for the land Hungary 11 routes to, 6 of which travel combined trips ( Mountains or Lake Balaton and Budapest ) were. Even a 14-day cycle tour was available. There were 10 different routes available for Romania , including a round trip. The most popular travel destinations were in Bulgaria , where 20 travel routes were offered. Combined trips ( mountains and Black Sea ) were very popular here. With 41 trips , Jugendtourist offered the largest number of routes for the Soviet Union . These included trips to Central Asia (Central Asia) and Siberia . River cruises on the Volga could also be booked.
The service providers in the host country did not receive any tips for the youth tourist trips . Neither the service staff in the restaurants , nor the room service, nor the tour guides on the excursions. When traveling to the Soviet Union , friendship meetings were often held in the evenings , during which there was a large number of free alcoholic drinks. It was often embarrassing not to have small presents for the Russian interlocutors.
In addition to the friendship meetings, factory tours were also on the agenda . These workplaces were quite interesting. The objects to be visited included, for example, hydropower plants such as the one in Bratsk or the Kuibyshev Volga river power plant VI Lenin. The City of Science Akademgorodok in Novosibirsk was also interesting for visitors traveling with youth tourists. In Bulgaria , among other things, an agricultural production cooperative (LPG) was visited and that was a peach plantation at harvest time.
The leaflet also includes instructions on how a prospect can obtain the trip . The FDJ management of the company or school where you work or study is responsible. You could also submit the application directly to the responsible district commission for youth tourism abroad.
Thus from 1975 the Free German Youth (FDJ) took over the distribution under its own direction. At the beginning of the year you could have your FDJ functionary make a note of a travel destination and he brought the wishes and offers of youth tourist trips into line.
The number of girls and boys in the tour groups was almost the same. During these trips, some young people found their partner for their future marriage.
The prices of youth tourist trips for 14 days were mostly between 700 and 800 marks. In the case of very long trips and for upscale hotel accommodation, this also amounted to over 1000 M. A trip to Siberia with the cities of Moscow , Novosibirsk , Irkutsk and Bratsk cost 1085 M.
The price of 763 M shown in the picture included the flight from Berlin to Burgas in Bulgaria , accommodation in Kamchia in a 2-person bungalow , full board , a day trip to Sunny Beach and Nessebar as well as pocket money in Bulgarian currency contain.
From the 1980s onwards, youth tourists also offered trips to the non-socialist economic area (NSW). The travel destinations were, for example, in Austria , Finland and North Africa . However, the number of trips was quite limited.
1989 VEB Jugendtourist saw some innovations and offered a new direct telephone service.
Post-turnaround time
1990 Renaming of VEB Jugendtourist to Reisedienst und Touristenservice GmbH
1991 Takeover of the east German tour operator Reiseienst und Touristenservice GmbH with its 35 sales outlets by ITS Länderreisedienste GmbH (at that time the tourism division of Kaufhof AG) for around 1.3 million DEM .
1995 Takeover of ITS Reisen by Atlasreisen . Atlasreisen is a subsidiary of the DER Deutsches Reisebüro group , which is one of the leading German tourism companies and has additional subsidiaries with DER travel agencies and the Derpart franchise branches as well as with RSG travel agency service. The DER German travel agency in turn belongs to the retail giant Rewe, which has built up a second mainstay in the tourism business in recent years.
Photo gallery
The photo gallery should primarily contain photographs that have image content that no longer exists. This means buildings , means of transport , clothing worn by travelers, etc. The aim is to document the state of development of tourism at that time .
In the Hotel Aurora in Balatonalmadi, youth tourists already had a contingent of rooms (summer 1971).
The suitcases of a youth tourist group are unloaded at the seaside resort of Kawarna (summer 1972)
Stop of the coach during a tour of Romania on the road to Poiana Brasov
During an LPG visit near Wraza (1974), young people from a tour group from Zwickau were able to pick a large number of peaches from the trees. The shopping nets shown were practical to take with you.
swell
- BI-Universallexikon A – Z, Bibliographisches Institut Leipzig (ed.), 1st edition Leipzig 1988, ISBN 3-323-00199-0 , keyword “Jugendtourist”, p. 355
Individual evidence
- ↑ Youth tourist with a new telephone service. In: New Germany . October 27, 1989.
- ↑ The takeover was based on a contract dated September 24, 1991. Heike Behre: Privatization during Market Economy Transformation . In: Peter M. Burns, Marina Novelli (Ed.): Tourism and politics. Global Frameworks and Local Realities . Elsevier Science & Technology, 2006, ISBN 978-0-08-045075-9 , pp. 33-58 (here: p. 42).
- ↑ Wer-zu-Wem.de , THE German travel agency .