Swiss youth hostels
The Swiss Youth Hostels are an association that operates youth hostels in Switzerland . He is a member of the umbrella organization Hostelling International .
In 2018, Swiss Youth Hostels had 51 establishments (including 6 franchise establishments) with 6,116 beds. With 723,030 overnight stays, a turnover of 45.5 million francs was achieved. The number of members was 82,000.
history
On April 28, 1924 around 70 representatives of youth associations founded the “Zurich Cooperative for the Establishment of Youth Hostels” in the “Gartenhof Girls Club” in Zurich. At the end of July 1924 there were 12 hostels and four accommodation options, the latter based on hay and straw. In 1925 the organization counted 277 user cards resp. Members.
From 1926 to 1938 the number of hostels, now called “Swiss Youth Hostels”, rose from 80 to 208 and the number of overnight stays from 7,000 to 168,000. In 1940, the year of the war, 91 foreigners stayed in youth hostels, while local guests generated 135,000 overnight stays - around a quarter of the local residents were soldiers.
The year 2008 was a record year with 986,471 overnight stays in 58 youth hostels.
Sustainability concept
The Swiss Youth Hostels have concluded a target agreement with the Energy Agency for Business (EnAW) which aims to be exempt from any CO 2 tax and to make efforts to save energy.
In January 2004 the Minergie Youth Hostel was opened in Zermatt. The Minergie standard was also used in the new building of the Valbella youth hostel, which opened in 2007. In November 2004, the sixth solar system of the Swiss Youth Hostels went into operation on the roof of the Zurich Youth Hostel. The plant has an output of approx. 50–60 kW and an annual energy production of approx. 40,000 kWh.
literature
- Janine Bunte CEO SJH, René Dobler CEO SSST: Swiss Youth Hostels , illustrated book, published by the Swiss Youth Hostels and the Swiss Foundation for Social Tourism. Kontras, Zurich 2006, ISBN 3-906729-45-1 (German, English, French, Italian, Spanish, Rhaeto-Romanic, Chinese, Arabic)