EUFED Conference
Edinburgh Youth Hostel
Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th
November 2006
EUFED president opened the Conference - Saturday 25/11, 2.30 pm
European
Hostelling: a vision for the future, and IYHF plans
Kevin Fitzgerald
presented some facts on recent planned IYHF activities such as Inventory
Management, Products and Marketing and Quality Management. IYHF will focus on
hihostels.com as a booking engine -machine
as an in inquiry
had shown that 100% of hihostels.com customers are doing online research in
finding accommodation. Products will be categorized on “eco” and “heritage”
themes and will be marketed. Marketing for Europe will focus on “EURAIL”. A
strong attempt will be made to cooperate closer with wholesalers, national
sales forces of member associations and other partners in tourism industry like
rail or air companies. A pro-active quality management should include online
ratings on Youth Hostels from customers.
The
following discussion showed some uncertainty confusion about
the co-operation with STAYWYSE, which could probably
weaken the hihostel brand as they are using the same philosophy. Angela
Braasch-Eggert and Edith Arnoult-Brill explained this tactical move towards
STAYWYSE. Igor Jurisic prompted to include the mission statement of HI
to hihostels.comon IYHF web site home
page.[what
does this sentence mean?]
Market
development at a European scale
Karina Schilte
presented the new entity “HI Marketing GmbH”, its aims and added values
strategy. In order to create more business for Youth Hostels, HI Marketing GmbH
will target cross-border travel in Europe and from outside Europe (SE America,
SE Asia, China). Reported marketing objectives will include creation of
packages to target groups (backpackers, families, groups), internet interface
with on-line reservation system, and market research through data banking. The
organizational structure and timelines of the new entity was then presented.
Although there is space for initiative for the new entity, it was concluded, that it has to be ensured, that the entity should be linked to IYHF and EUFED, and should not double activities, as e.g. a focus on China as well. It was agreed, that not only the creation of a new entity could solve problems in bringing HI and its Youth Hostels to market. This is more depending on how IYHF, national associations, HI Marketing and EUFED are coordinating on a strategic and operational level.
HI Europe:
the “third way” and the public mission of Youth Hostelling
Bernd Dohn presented DJH ideas on a “third way” in HI and how DJH is proceeding to get toward. As Youth Hostelling is surrounded by a variety of competitors, not only hardware investment is necessary in order to match customers requirements on booking, accommodation quality and so on, but also investment in the building of a USP based on common values of HI like solidarity, peace, education and pleasure, environment, families etc. It is a unique chance to bring together business and value approach in order to grow with values.
It was stated, that the very heart of HI business is the product, which has to be understood by the customer. Therefore it is very helpful to achieve a USP.
Examples of
cross-border marketing activities
Mario Mohr gave a presentation on examples of cross-border marketing activities in Europe. Only few activities of national YHAs could be identified, and no joint packages were brought to market. Some ideas were presented as well as were to start cross-border cooperation in future, especially in the case of cycling, as there are already some national activities to promote Youth Hostelling and cycling on a national level. More could be done to promote European packages and the products offered by national associations.
EUFED president Peter Kaiser and EUFED ExCo member Roger Clarke summarized the presentations and the following discussions as followed:
v All initiatives to promote Youth Hostelling and its values and business are welcomed.
v
Not only a
single offer will provide the solution to reach the objectives;,
multi-layer activities are essential irreplaceable.
v Co-ordination between different bodies and entities in HI are pre-condition to success.
v HI needs a strong brand, ensured quality standards and PR.
v HI has to close several gaps, as there is limited development of packages, bookable bed/rooms on-line, little analysis of data, promoting the mission of HI in Europe.
The conference continued on Sunday 8.30 am
Hostels for the future: case study presentations
Only two of the foreseen presentations were given as the session was
shifted to Sunday morning and the speaker of SYHA was not able to take part in
the EUFED conference on Sunday.
Edith Arnoult-Brill presented the FUAJ’s example of the refurbishment
while implementing the HQE (Environmental High Quality) of Grenoble Youth
Hostel.
Three main aspects were given priority in refurbishing the hostel:
environmental friendly planning and build-up, connecting the local community to
the Youth Hostel – design orientation and comfort for the benefit of customers.
FUAJ only contributed to 6% of the total costs to renovation of the Hostel out
of 2.4 mm € while not owning the Youth Hostel, but has fixed a 25 years lease
contract with the local authorities.
Alexandra Alvarez presented MOVIJOVEM’s attempts in eco-labelling the
Portuguese Youth Hostels. Started with the ISO 9001 scheme and fulfilling the
criteria, will be followed by a next step. As it seems, that ISO 14001 criteria
could not be fulfilled MOVIJOVEM is currently searching another eco label
scheme to move on further with. Due to the wide range of labels MOVIJOVEM
requests assistance of EUFED in order to choose a proper one. EUFED offered
support.
Europe without frontiers:
The Chairman introduced the proposed discussion groups and told the
participants that the foreseen discussion group on network planning was
postponed. This topic will be discussed during next year General Assembly in
2007.
Short reports of the three breakout groups where presented to the
participants.
1.
Markets
The group discussed two themes:
a)
A way has to be
found to, first, market visitors from Europe and travelling within Europe, and,
secondly, visitors from outside Europe.
b) Marketing has to concentrate on themes like eco
or heritage with emphasis not only on big city Youth Hostels.
It was taken into account that concerning the
first groups of visitors, demands of visitors from A8 countries may be slightly
different from others.
Ahead of taking action, the market has to be
segmented clearly and the product has to be matched to the customer.
Action should include:
c)
Promoting
packages (do not forget about hidden destinations)
d) Bring together many domestic packages
e)
Facilitate
“language packages”
f)
Promote one-stop
shop Europe
g)
Use posters,
brochures, websites to promote HI Hostelling
h)
Profile the Youth
Hostels (inventory management)
i)
Do not forget
about the huge market of families
j)
Take China as a
potential market in to account on a long-term perspective
k) Selling from the “hostel desk” is still
important, motivated and language skilled staff is therefore needed
l)
Include travel
sections with the national YHA´s in developing cross-border or European
packages
Overall it was recommended, not to be too
ambitious and start marketing with a few packages.
2.
Public
mission and identity
The group issued the following:
a)
Philosophy
(mission) and business are not excluding each other
b) Combining them as a “Third Way” of Youth
Hostelling will help to strengthen the brand
c)
Using the
philosophy actively could anticipate business as it could contribute to
answering civil society’s questions on globalisation, climate change,
solidarity and social responsibility
d) A Third Way can overcome barriers within the HI
movement and could solve internal problems
Finally the group recommended the inclusion of
questioning new members who apply to IHYF or EUFED on their mission for future
aspects of HI Hostelling within the application procedure.
3.
Hostels
The group focused on key features for Youth
Hostels in future as there are:
a)
Profile related
to thematic matters
b) Reinforcement of multi-functionality
c)
Flexibility in
ownership
d) Ensuring quality standards (staff systems,
rooms, labels, eco-labels) at a global level, which means harmonization is
required
e)
Public
orientation of Youth Hostels
In addition, the group recommended sharing best
practices (catering, seminar rooms etc.) pro-actively in order to maximize
additional income resources.
EUFED president, Peter Kaiser, addressed some conclusions of the General
Assembly as well as of the EUFED conference to the participants.
First of all, he thanked the hosting association, SYHA, for their
brilliant work in hosting the EUFED General Assembly and the EUFED
conference.
He pointed out the good working atmosphere during the General Assembly and conference. The decisions, which were made, are allowing EUFED to move on in launching a new strategy and its approaches to new tasks. The three task groups will be implemented shortly as it has been discussed. The outcomes of their work will be presented and discussed at the next General Assembly and should be implemented soon in order to foster EUFED network. Reflecting the discussions on public mission and marketing, he concluded that there is not only a single approach. EUFED´s role is to co-ordinate the different strands, but its main tasks will remain lobbying the EU institutions. Only a collective and consistent approach of HI Europe, which means to concentrate on the same issues and priorities in its work on a strategic and operational level, will enable Youth Hostelling in Europe to cope with future challenges. The very heart of Youth Hostelling is its product: the Youth Hostel itself and the added values of the philosophy. A unique selling proposition has to be achieved with focus on potential customers and a potential stakeholder audience. Only with motivated staff, Youth Hostelling is able to serve both, a market and a so-called “non-market” in order to generate business as well as promote, secure and develop its mission. Therefore enhancing PR will become a more and more important factor in EUFED´s work.
Action plan from the conference
Roger Clarke draw up some final remarks which are representing an action
plan from the conference:
-
EUFED and the
national Youth Hostel Associations in Europe have to work together seriously to
make an attempt to move towards a European identity in Youth Hostelling
-
As IYHF and EUFED
are preoccupied with their duties respectively on a worldwide and a European
level, there is a recognized a gap of co-ordination in marketing issues. HI
Marketing GmbH will probably fill this gap
-
Youth Hostelling
has to redefine its mission on its today’s vocabulary in order to promote it in
future
-
The proposal of
the ExCo of EUFED to establish three task groups, which should work on the
following issues was welcomed and agreed by the General Assembly:
a)
Mission and EUFED
strategy
b)
Harmonization in
terms of membership
c)
Marketing in
terms of a collective attempt to better co-ordination