Backpacker demographics

Nope, hostels are unwilling to give up the information to a third party so we continue being in the backwaters. It is something that has been talked about with the Canadian Backpackers Association to collect it and then combine the figures so no ones information is easily exposed.

Sorry I miswrote. Backpackers Hostels Canada. If you had even googled Canadian Backpackers Association, BHC would have come up second on the ranking behind Canadiana Backpackers of Toronto. Website is backpackers.ca since you seem not to know about it. Happy surfing!

Sorry I miswrote. Backpackers Hostels Canada. If you had even googled Canadian Backpackers Association, BHC would have come up second on the ranking behind Canadiana Backpackers of Toronto. Website is backpackers.ca since you seem not to know about it. Happy surfing!

It is important for me to clarify my comment above. As a result of this thread Canhostel and I had a very indepth and interesting phone conversation today regarding the need for a true Hostels association in Canada as a face. perhaps lobbying institution, data collection/analysis office and even service provider for the needs of the hostelling industry in Canada. Our very important and significant industry in Canada does not have any co-hesive, representation, definition or standing regionally, municipally or nationally. A well run effective, inclusive membership based association could also establish/offer bulk deals for insurance/credit card processing for instance and serve as a repository of information for the Canadian hostelling/backpackers industry. This would help new entrants into our industry, banks and government agencies understand the challenges and oportunity of operating hostels in Canada. We are sorely in need of this in Canada. We have, of course, been aware of the private company Backpackers Hostel Canada BHC acting like some sort of an association. BHC is definitely not an association. It is a privately owned and operated company with no official standing in Canada in any form beyond a list of hostels in the country, a booklet and a brochure style website. Due to the structure and private nature of this company we chose after a couple years not to be involved with them and not send them any money without benefit.

We discussed regional and country wide associations with no real conclusions. However one of the huge adavantages of this international forum is that what we need in Canada has been done in other countries. Does anyone out there have any information/websites about what was done in other countries? Any suggestions, comments, links or ideas are appreciated.

well, australia has BTAP - the Backpacker Tourism Advisory Panel - which includes representatives from the accommodation industry (amongst others), which comes under the Australian Tourism Export Council. Now obviously tourism is a HUUUUGE business in Australia and backpackers are well entrenched.

one must remember that no matter how big the hostel industry gets in any country, it will only ever make up a small proportion of the total tourism industry. I would Osuggest that instead of focusing solely on the hostel industry, 'our' voice would be much louder if included a greater variety of inputs. Excluding tour operators, travel agents, educational and working holiday organisations will do nothing to help hostels and at the end of the day whats good for backpackers is good for hostels.

In any given country, Hosteling International will still be the biggest single player and it would be essential to get them on board, particularly when trying to amalgamate the massive amounts of information required for any lobbying. To my knowledge, no other country has backpackers so entrenched in their economy (I stand to be corrected of course) nor has any other country gone so far as to have government sanctioned (for want of a better term) backpacker industry representatives.

All of that said, Australian tourism is struggling - for a variety of reasons - and I've always found it difficult to see the tangible benefits flow down to hostels. Admittedly, hostels and backpackers are considered a vital element of australian tourism and so perhaps BTAP has, for all intents and purposes, already done its 'job'.

I would imagine that Canadian backpacker tourism is still considered as somewhat of an afterthought by the government so again, its I believe it's important not to focus on our supply side of the equation and instead focus on the benefits backpackers bring to a country, rather than assuming they'll arrive and 'hey, look at all the cheap accommodation we can provide!'. Get the authorities interested in backpackers and then accommodation providers will see the benefits; but focusing too much on what we provide over what backpackers bring means that hostels will always struggle to find a voice.

IMO anyway...