Youth hostels in Schleswig-Holstein: Midsummer challenge exploded!

Youth hostels in Schleswig-Holstein: Midsummer challenge exploded!

List-Mövenberg, Sylt, Deutschland - The youth hostels in Schleswig-Holstein also have a lively demand in 2024. According to current figures, the youth hostels in the Region have registered around 771,000 overnight stays. This corresponds to a decline of 1.59 percent compared to the years 2022 and 2023, but this does not prevent the association from looking optimistically into the future. A good fifth of the guests comes from Schleswig-Holstein itself, while the entire number of overnight stays in the youth hostels in Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg and the northern Lower Saxony is over a millionyouth hostel.de.

The demand on the coast and on the islands, especially during the summer vacation, is particularly high. As the NDR reports, most places in the youth hostels are now almost fully booked. The youth hostel List-Mövenberg on Sylt is one of the largest facilities with almost 400 beds and is very popular, not only for school classes, but also among older visitors who travel on weekends.

Guest and number of members

The proportion of guests who come from school trips and group trips is about 76 percent. Other guests include families and individual travelers. According to the information fromyouth hostel.deAlmost 48 percent of the nights were due to school classes and university groups, followed by over 18 percent families. Around 860,000 overnight stays are already pre -booked for 2025, which feeds the hope of reaching the mark of one million overnight stays if the booking behavior remains stable.

The managing director of the DJH state association Nordmark e.V., Stefan Wehrheim, expressed a positive statement about the developments last year, despite a decline in overnight stays by 2.3 percent. At the end of 2024, the association had almost 178,000 members, which underlines the constant popularity and relevance of the youth hostels.

Prince design and access to youth hostels

The overnight prices in the youth hostels on Sylt begin at around 40 euros per night, whereby the booking of full board is possible from around 50 euros. In order to be able to work costs, the youth hostels must not make a profit. Membership in the German Jugendherbergswerk (DJH) is a prerequisite for this, with contributions of 7 euros per year for less than 26 year olds and 22.50 euros for everyone else. The youth hostels face challenges, especially with regard to the decline in school and group trips, which is reinforced by the need for support options for families with low incomes.

The new chairman of the regional association, Thies Grothe, who followed Angela Braasch-Eggert in June 2024, urgently demands political support for the maintenance and renovation of the facilities. The access options for public funding for school trips and holiday holidays should also be improved in order to continue to ensure the attractiveness of the youth hostels.