Report

Presentation for Hostelling on US Campuses

Promoting the Hostel Movement

Josh started this discussion 16 years 9 months ago

This is a follow-up to the thread about promoting hostels to American students.

I think Rucksack Brian might have hit on the missing piece:

I think a focused marketing campaign promoting the idea of hostels could really be effective on college campuses rather than in the hostels themselves. . . .

Universities are always looking for guest speakers to promote topics relating to anything "cultural," and they frequently pay to have those speakers flown in. The US hostels could combine their resources and create a standard (45-minute?) presentation on how to travel on a budget with an emphasis on enriching the experience by staying in hostels. Then each participating hostel could send someone to the universities in their area to make the presentation shortly before Spring or Summer break. If a lot of hostels got involved this would have the potential to reach an enormous number of students in a short amount of time.

Is a standardized presentation the best way to do this, or should it be up to the hostels how they want to present?

Would it be better if all the hostels did it at the same time? Or could it be something ongoing that hostels could do anytime they wanted? What about the creation of a "International Hostel Week" during the school year (maybe in January or February because people are still planning spring break)?

I've created a temporary placeholder at hostels101.com for a project to teach students about hostels, hostelling and backpacking in general. What do you think of the name? Does "101" have educational connotations in other countries, or only in the USA? Any other ideas?

Just brainstorming about presentations ideas here:

Promoting Hostels to Students in the USA

Why travel?
Why stay in hostels?
Hostel stories
Hostels in the USA and abroad
Backpacking is cheaper than staying at home, cheaper than motels, how to find hostels, how to pack...
Good aspects of hostels – meeting people, new cultures,
photos of smiling, good-looking people
photos of famous destinations
Bad aspects of hostels? (defuse doubts by addressing them)
living with people from the other side of the world is all part of the adventure
Are hostels safe?
Are hostels clean?
How to choose a good hostel
Using hostels when traveling cross country
Weekend getaways - specific trips that can be done from that college/university
Traveling alone vs. group travel
Related books to read on independent travel
Maybe create a ppt file as an outline that could be expanded by each hostel that uses it? (so that the presenter could feature their own hostel and own travels)? Or maybe one standard version... with the option of inserting content?
Also create a PDF file that could be passed out during the presentation?

Comments

Report

ifij775

16 years

I think one thing you should consider is that most college students travel to 2 places every year. They go on a ski trip in the winter, and they go on spring break to Florida, South Padre, and Caribbean. These two travel destinations are marketed to college students extensively. These trips usually involve large groups, and the prices vary based on destination and hotel quality. These often involve an "all-inclusive" component for meals and drinks.

Do hostels fit into this? probably not

Not every student does this, so how do you entice them to an alternative, such as hostelling?

Volunteerism is popular as an alternative, could hostels work with local volunteer groups to offer a package deal? Students could travel to the hostel and work locally to help a community.

The other time for students to travel is during the summer, but most students work during the summer. So traveling would likely be limited to weekends or at the beginning or end of summer. Is traveling over the summer in hostels an alternative to working during the summer?

I don't think many students would take the whole summer off, but they might spend a week volunteering in a community.

Report

Ria

15 years

I know you posted this months ago, but i'm really interested in this...

I'd love to talk about it off the site. If you are still interested, contact me at [email][email protected][/email].

thanks.

Report

skibum001

15 years

@Ria,

I find it very interesting that hostels and backpacking as concept seem so unknown & underdeveloped in the US when compared to Europe & Australia. This is evident in the numbers of hostels in USA vs other locations, observations on this forum and even google - the first 30 results of backpacking europe or backpacking australia are all about budget travel while backpacking usa has lots of 'hiking' links.

I don't have hard statistics to back these observations up but I would suggest that about 25% of budget travellers in Europe are North American (and about the same amount of Australians & kiwis). That means a LOT of Americans have experienced backpacking and staying in hostels, similar to the number of Australian, but the market over there remains much smaller than in Europe or Australia.

Why is this? I don't claim to have a definative answer but I believe it is more to do with the USA as a desirable destination for budget traveller. Even the classic beer drinking tour companies of Europe (such as contiki) have very different demographics on their tours in Europe (most 18-25yo) and USA (most 25-30yo).

I do know that not many Australians backpack around Australia so hostels are filled predominently with travellers from overseas (I'd suggest only 10% domestic guests). Europe seems to be the same - not many Germans backpacking around Germany (Berlin & school groups seem to be an exception) so why should the USA be any different.

The point is, perhaps the answer to developing the backpacker industry in the US lies not with promoting to American's but to foreign visitors. Maybe the US market should be framed in terms of number of budget travellers, not population (and therefore not as 'big' as we think it should be). I'd be very interested to see some data on guest demographics from major hostels to compare it to inbound visitor data for a better idea.

@hostels, I'd be more than happy to compile and analyse this and share it with the forum (I'm a bit of a data geek). To be reasonably accurate, we should have about 20 data points from each 'region' we are comparing - USA, Europe, Asia, OZ/NZ. Are there any large hostels out there that would like to share the customer demographics - just percentages of North American, Australian/NZ, European, English (they don't have the Euro yet:)), Asian and other.

To get started, here is the breakdown from an Australian backpacker transport company I am very familiar with (25,000 customers per year).
UK=>25%, AU/NZ=>25%, EU=>40%, NAmerica=>3%, ASIA=>2%, Other=>5%

Report

aboriginalhostel

15 years

Even the classic beer drinking tour companies of Europe (such as contiki) have very different demographics on their tours in Europe (most 18-25yo) and USA (most 25-30yo).

IMHO, the half generation difference between these tour participants can refer to the budget as well. 18-25yo European group mostly refers to uni students whose have been paid in by their parents, meanwhile the same age US kids try to tighten the same budget and backpacking by themselves instead, especially after their $1000 flight from the States. The 25-30yo group could be from those who couldn't do the backpacking stuff and contiki when they can pay it off from their own salary and can afford their first independent, intl. holiday.

I don't claim any facts behind neither... just loudly thinking! ;)

Report

Josh Hostels

15 years

Are there any large hostels out there that would like to share the customer demographics - just percentages of North American, Australian/NZ, European, English (they don't have the Euro yet:)), Asian and other.

I think the largest hostels in the USA are HI hostels. Do they make their data available? It's nonprofit organization so they might.

Report

footprints

14 years

@Ria,

The point is, perhaps the answer to developing the backpacker industry in the US lies not with promoting to American's but to foreign visitors. Maybe the US market should be framed in terms of number of budget travellers, not population (and therefore not as 'big' as we think it should be). I'd be very interested to see some data on guest demographics from major hostels to compare it to inbound visitor data for a better idea.

Wow this might be resurrecting a really old thread but it is pretty interesting, I would have to agree with the above 100% and I think and from experience the last thing you want in a hostel are locals, hostels are for international travellers period.

I also read earlier in this thread about Germans not using hostels 'what a load of C&^" Germans are massive in hostels while travelling, maybe not in their own country or neighbours but Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

I have a few ideas why backpacking is not so popular in the US, but they would probably be a bit on the nose...

Report

Josh Hostels

14 years

I have a few ideas why backpacking is not so popular in the US, but they would probably be a bit on the nose...

The more hostels I talk to, the more I think this is the case:
Many people in the US don't know what hostels are, but at the same time, some hostels in Europe are reporting that as much as 20% or more of their guests are from the US. The US population is over 300 million so I'm thinking the total number of people who know about hostels is substantial, but the overall percentage of the population is low. Some people from the US who do know about hostels might assume that they are a foreign thing and that there are only a few hostels in the US.

I think that within 5 years the idea of "hostels" will be widely known in the US. The word "backpacking" already has another meaning here (wilderness travel with a backpack), but it might eventually have two meanings.

10 years ago there weren't many hostels in many European countries either. In 1999 I had to stay in a hostal (pension) in Sevilla because the 2 or 3 hostels in the city were closed for Christmas and New Year's :)

There are 15 hostels in Sevilla now.

A few years ago, Miami just had 3 hostels. Now there are 7 or 8 (not including the properties that call themselves "hostels" but that only have private rooms). Things are taking off in the US...

Report

footprints

14 years

It really has only been the last decade that has seen 'backpacking' really take off, and Oz has lead the way along with NZ, and now Europe is fast catching up. Now we have Flashpacking taking off big time, people of just a bit younger than me and to my age who have done their backpacking but never really got over the bug ready to do it again but with just a little more comfort, not a massive amount more but a bit.

I think we are verging on a new surge of backpacking, not just the young gap year student but the 30 something looking for the meaning of life the universe and everything.

Report

abooth77

14 years

I work for the HI hostels in the USA and just read through this posting. I would love to see more collaboration in regards to getting the word out about hostelling in the US to more college students here. I would say that on average in our bigger city hostels (i.e. Chicago, NYC, Boston, Washington DC, LA/Santa Monica) that we get a fair number of domestic travelers that are 18-29 years old. Depending on the time of year, we can be about 50/50 domestic vs. international as far as individual travelers go. As for groups of 10 or more people, which is more my focus, we get probably about 60% domestic vs. 40% international groups; again this certainly can be different from location to location as well as during the time of year. For example, we get a lot of group business in the shoulder months (Sept/Oct, March-May) and more FIT in the summertime.

I'd love to hear more ideas from folks about talking to more college students. If there are enough of us out there promoting hostels in general, we should be able to cover more ground than just us here at HI.

Thanks!
Amanda

Report

Scotch Argus

14 years

the last thing you want in a hostel are locals, hostels are for international travellers period.

This is certainly not true in the UK. Around 50% of our guests would be from the UK. If by locals you mean (perhaps homeless) people from the city you are in then that is certainly true. The domestic market should be a prime target for a hostel. It can be a great buffer against tough times, as if there is a recession, international travellers may decrease, but domestic business may increase in the budget sector.

This may not be true all over the world, but if I were starting a business I wouldn't ignore what could be a lucrative market segment. The other thing is that hostels are moving out of the pure backepacker/ party segment and into family, busness and all sorts of travellers. Example here.

I think the real difficulty in the USA is price. There are many cheap motels which will attract budget travellers at prices not much more than $30 per night at times. Backpackers are primarily price motivated, and hostels will find these places hard to compete with, apart from certain very highly priced areas (NYC, SF and such). Motels or hotels at these sort of price levels don't exist in Australia - you'll pay $100 a room for a low quality room in a regional area.

Search form

Report 'Presentation for Hostelling on US Campuses'?

Report 'Re: Presentation for Hostelling on US Campuses'?

Report 'Re: Presentation for Hostelling on US Campuses'?

Report 'Re: Presentation for Hostelling on US Campuses'?

Report 'Re: Presentation for Hostelling on US Campuses'?

Report 'Re: Presentation for Hostelling on US Campuses'?

Report 'Re: Presentation for Hostelling on US Campuses'?

Report 'Re: Presentation for Hostelling on US Campuses'?

Report 'Re: Presentation for Hostelling on US Campuses'?

Report 'Re: Presentation for Hostelling on US Campuses'?

Report 'Re: Presentation for Hostelling on US Campuses'?

Pages

Join the world's largest community of hostel professionals.

Check Your Email