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Working on my next book has filled my mind. leaving time for little else. I finished a good draft of the book and friends and readers have given me pointers for a redraft. With luck, the book will be ready next year. That will be a relief.
Swift and sure
Big changes at YHA. CEO, James Blake, has gone to the Yorkshire Dales National Park. More properties sold, as youth hostels face immense challenges from rising costs that show no signs of receding. Using only second class postage, as YHA did in the 1980s to save money, won’t help today.
Youth hostels don’t have the big support of private funds with deep pockets, as their competitors often do. They only have the property they own, the people who use them, their staff and supporters. Neither do they have the flexibility of individual owner operators. But the support of individual owner-operators is going to be vital for youth hostels in the future, keeping them and their movement alive.
Old ways
Colin Trigg is someone who has taken the plunge and bought a former YHA hostel, showing how a hostel can continue in the hands of an individual operator. https://www.fountainhouseyoulgreave.co.uk/hostel
It’s not a new story. It’s a way of running youth hostels that’s been around since youth hostels first started in Britain. https://duncanmsimpsonwriting.com/2023/06/28/hostels-re-imagined/
Another burden
A tourism tax will be another challenge. It may cause big drops in numbers travelling although I’m less sure of that. In Edinburgh last week, ar the end of a trip to the Outer Isles, a levy on rooms hadn’t brought disaster and numbers visiting the city have held up well. Princes Street was as crowded as ever.
Many of us get it. We understand that we should, as visitors, contribute to the communities we visit but the levy that’s proposed in England, wil be a regressive tax. Everyone will pay the same, no matter how much they can afford. I would like to see young people exempted.
Adventures in freedom
I want to see tourism for young people made easier and more affordable, with fewer barriers in their way. Young people already earn less than their elders. They already pay more for education than previous generations. They already suffer more mental health issues.
Just as in the 1930s we should be encouraging more young people to explore and experience the simplicity and freedom of holidays. If you want to help, write to your MP and ask them to show that we want young people today to enjoy the freedom of earlier generations by exempting them from tourism taxes.
Notes
Proposals for the visitor levy https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6aa2980c5f6e942efe37f0c9/Visitor_Levy_in_England_-_government_response.pdf
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