Julian Drew
IT is early morning in Johannesburg’s trendy suburb of=20 Yeoville. I venture into the street and am greeted by=20 three blond Swedish girls. “Can you tell me the way to the=20 Pink House?” they ask in chorus.
“Just follow the yellow brick road,” I am tempted to say.=20 But this is no fairy tale, just three more backpackers=20 seeking directions to one of the many youth hostels that=20 are burgeoning in South Africa’s major cities.
Youth hostels have been around in South Africa since 1954,=20 but a mini-boom began a few years ago when private hostels=20 were established to cater for the increasing number of=20 budget travellers visiting this country.
Although backpackers, and the hostels which cater for them,=20 form the fastest-growing sector of South Africa’s=20 international tourism market, they are generally regarded=20 as an insignificant bunch of budget travellers.
But a study carried out in 1991 by Monash University in=20 Melbourne found this to be a myth.=20
“In Australia it was believed that it was the European,=20 American and Japanese tourists who came for two or three=20 weeks on package tours who were spending the most money.=20 This study showed that backpackers stay longer and actually=20 end up spending more,” says Tim Sowell, co-founder of the=20 Backpacker’s Ritz in Dunkeld.
Hostellers worldwide contribute more than R55-billion to=20 tourist revenue every year. Most importantly, this money=20 stays in the local economy and is spread around,=20 particularly in the rural and more offbeat areas where this=20 kind of tourist likes to go. =20
Much of the money spent on package tours eventually leaks=20 out of the country through international companies which=20 have large stakes in this sector of the market. =20
“They need to publicise budget travel in South Africa and=20 make it known there are facilities,” says Sowell. “The=20 South African Tourism Board doesn’t give any publicity to=20 budget travel because it’s not the big end of the market.”
Last October, the former Hostels Association of South=20 Africa (Hasa) and Backpackers Africa, a private=20 organisation formed in 1993, joined forces to form=20 Hostelling International South Africa (Hisa), which is=20 affiliated to the International Youth Hostel Federation=20
There are 33 member hostels in Hisa and they have to comply=20 with the IYHF’s stringent standards.