Our Mission

“To promote the education of all the youths of all the nations, but especially those of resources limited, stimulating in them a greater knowledge, affection and care of the field, as well as an appreciation of the cultural values of the cities, so much large as small, of all parts of the world, and, as middle to achieve it, to offer shelters or another class of lodging in which not distinctions of race exist, nationality,sex, social class neither political opinions, so that they can arrive thus to understand better to their similar, so much in their own country as abroad ”
This it is our mission just as stipulates the Article 2 of the Statutes of the International Confederacy of Youthful Hostels (International Youth Hostel Federation – IYHF).

Birth of the Hostelling with Richard Schirrmann
They created at first to help the youths of limited economic resources to enjoy the field and of the cities of the world, the hostels are found nowadays in the heart of the international tourism.

Since 1909, the year in which the shelters were born of the excursions of the German professor Richard Schirrmann with its students, the alberguismo has become one of the associative organizations for the largest youth of the world, with a number of member over the 3 million and valid one more philosophy today than never.

World expansion of the Hostels
Hostelling International has more than 4.000 shelters distributed for more than 60 countries. To reserve in them with advance would not be able to be easier through this page Internet.
The hostel user present is able so much to have reached the thirty and to bring its family in car, as arriving alone on foot with a backpack al shoulder, or even to form part of a school group. But the hostelers is neither an end in itself. For the hosteler of all the ages, the hostels constitute a passport for the cultural exploration and the appreciation of the nature.

The political, social, and economic environment that frames the hostelling has changed totally during this last century. The movement has left of his original nucleus European to cover the entire world and to satisfy the expectations of the youths of today, who arrange of more money and free time, and enjoy more mobility than never.

Hostelling and the Youths
The network of hostels allow the youths of different nationalities, cultures and social conditions, to be found in an informal environment, to exchange experiences, to learn to be known to itself same and to the others, and to discover the place where are found. The hostels promote an authentic one takes of conscience of the themes of present time to international scale
The environment of the hostels promotes the social conscience and shows the importance of the civils for the contact. On the other hand, helps to develop the sense of the selfdicipline that manages to living himself different situations, being seen obliged to take decisions one alone and learning of the consequences.

The youths have become spokesmen of the ecological problems of our planet and call us to join with them. Thanks al constant vigor that characterizes the movement of the youthful hostels, we have managed to carry out its expectations. And we will continue doing it, to the extent that they go being born new generations and that the youth of today be transformed into the families alberguistas of the tomorrow.

Hostels Development
Hostelling International it endeavors for promoting the expansion and the efficiency of the Hostels Associations of the entire world. Our mission is to extend the network of Hostels to new lands, instituting the same methods of work and high levels of quality in all the places, and to prompt the ideal of the spirit by means of promotions and contributions to international level.

The incomes generated by our activities are reinvested in their totality and, in this way, the most profitable hostels help to maintain to those situated in more remote places, which, if went not because of it, possibly they would not be viable economically. The benefits of exploitation serve like wise to finance programs of kind so much physics as intellectual, as well as to enlarge the environmental conscience among the users of the hostels in general.

Thanks to these initiatives, Hostelling International continues opening the doors from the world to the youth and assuring a service always in harmony with the needs of the moment.

The future of Hostelling International
Hostelling International collaborates with the governments and beneficial agencies of all the countries to open the doors of the world al tourism. Together we promote the education in its felt more extensive and we offer to all the opportunity to discover new cultures of an intensely satisfactory form.

The commercial companies also play a role in our movement and are benefit their time of our ideology. Been associated with us and to support our work, help us to draw the sure road al success, without because of it we should compromise our fundamental principles neither to lose sight of our objective.

The demands of the modern life submit the youths to an always growing number of pressures of all types. The fight of IYHF by reaching their put never went more important neither pertinent that today and never there was opportune one more moment to be endeavored in which they continue obtaining. Thanks to its structure and unique philosophy, and thanks also al endorses of its commercial associates, of the diverse governments and of the same youths, IYHF is found in a suitable situation to achieve this end and to maintain the doors of the open world to the youth.