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We created the hostels
HI 100th Anniversary
Youth hostelling will be celebrating its 100th Anniversary in 2009.
Hostelling International is a membership organization, and HI membership gives you much more than a comfy bed! It puts you at the heart of a huge international family, where you can share experiences, travel and friendship with people of all nations.
HI is a non-profit membership organization, with a proud history and a relevant philosophy. We work with a number of partners around the world to develop hostelling and promote peace and international understanding.
Originally created to help young people of limited means to experience the countryside and cities of the world, hostels are now at the heart of international tourism for a wide age group.
Since 1909, when hostelling was born out of the excursions of German schoolteacher Richard Schirrmann and his pupils, it has become one of the world's biggest international membership organizations for youth, with over 3 million members and a philosophy that has never been more relevant.
The hostel network enables young people of differing nationalities, cultures and social background to meet informally, share experiences; learn about themselves, each other and their surroundings. Hostels foster a remarkable international awareness about current issues.
Hostelling also has a fundamental, but unofficial, role in the development of young people as future employees in a global market.
The hostel environment encourages social awareness and the importance of living in a community, plus it develops the kind of self-discipline skills that result from experiencing different situations, having to make individual decisions and learning from them.
The young have become the spearhead of environmental concerns on this planet and they expect us to join them. Through the continuing vigor of the youth hostel movement, we are living up to their expectations. And we will continue to do so as new generations are born, and as today's youth become the hostelling families of tomorrow.
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