«Every opening is a very special moment»

On 11 May 2023 the Swiss Foun­da­tion for Social Tourism will be cel­e­brat­ing its 50th anniver­sary. The Foun­da­tion is respon­si­ble for the con­struc­tion and main­te­nance of the prop­er­ties run by the Swiss Youth Hos­tels. CEO of the Foun­da­tion since 1999, René Dobler talks about its foun­da­tion, vary­ing tasks and his per­son­al high­lights.

René, why does the Swiss Foun­da­tion for Social Tourism exist in the first place?

The Swiss Foun­da­tion for Social Tourism was found­ed on 11 May 1973 by the Zurich Youth Hos­tels Asso­ci­a­tion. The aim was to sep­a­rate respon­si­bil­i­ties: While the asso­ci­a­tion is respon­si­ble for all oper­a­tional con­cepts, the Foun­da­tion assumes the role of prop­er­ty and asset man­ag­er.

What is your goal?

The aim of the Swiss Foun­da­tion for Social Tourism is to pro­mote tourism in Switzer­land that is afford­able for all. The Foun­da­tion achieves this by build­ing and fur­nish­ing youth hos­tels for young peo­ple, youth groups, schools and fam­i­lies, by pro­mot­ing youth and fam­i­ly trav­el, and by coop­er­at­ing with insti­tu­tions involved in leisure activ­i­ties and youth and social tourism. Even after 50 years, our goal has not changed.

What have been the biggest changes in the last half cen­tu­ry?

With the merg­er of most youth hos­tel dis­tricts in 1992, the Foun­da­tion took over respon­si­bil­i­ty for all youth hos­tel prop­er­ties through­out Switzer­land. A plan­ning team devel­oped a con­struc­tion con­cept and with it the basis for pro­fes­sion­al prop­er­ty man­age­ment. Today, there are a wide range of hos­tels in the most beau­ti­ful places in Switzer­land.

You start­ed in 1993 as a con­sul­tant for the Foun­da­tion. You’ve held the posi­tion of CEO since 1999 – aren’t you bored after such a long time?

With every project and the changes of time, we’re con­stant­ly fac­ing new chal­lenges. In my role, I am involved in both the plan­ning and con­struc­tion process and in oper­a­tion. After con­struc­tion, I see the use phase and can check how well the archi­tec­ture is suit­ed. And I have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to work through­out Switzer­land, expe­ri­ence region­al pecu­liar­i­ties at first hand and dis­cuss with the lead­ers of the nation­al youth hos­tel asso­ci­a­tions around the world.

How does a new project usu­al­ly come about?

Each project has its own sto­ry. It usu­al­ly starts with the desire to be rep­re­sent­ed at a loca­tion. How­ev­er, it’s often also third par­ties who com­bine their ideas with a youth hos­tel and want to offer more than just an accom­mo­da­tion option. This is the ide­al basis for us to offer real added val­ue togeth­er with the des­ti­na­tion or pri­vate indi­vid­u­als: with well­ness, muse­ums, radio, music schools or boul­der­ing halls.

What chal­lenges need to be over­come?

The chal­lenges are many. As a non-prof­it organ­i­sa­tion, we are under con­stant cost pres­sure and rely on finan­cial sup­port from spon­sors and the pub­lic sec­tor. In addi­tion, build­ing law require­ments in terms of fire pro­tec­tion, ener­gy and secu­ri­ty are becom­ing increas­ing­ly com­plex.

What stan­dards has the Foun­da­tion set for itself?

We have very high expec­ta­tions of our projects, espe­cial­ly in the area of qual­i­ty and sus­tain­abil­i­ty. For all our projects, we con­sid­er com­pre­hen­sive sus­tain­abil­i­ty cri­te­ria of the envi­ron­ment, soci­ety and the econ­o­my. The numer­ous envi­ron­men­tal and sus­tain­abil­i­ty awards and the 66% reduc­tion in our car­bon foot­print since 2000 show that we are on the right track.

What has been your biggest high­light since join­ing the Foun­da­tion?

Every open­ing is a very spe­cial moment. It marks the end of long-stand­ing coop­er­a­tion in a project-spe­cif­ic com­mu­ni­ty with many ups and downs. At the end of the day, every­one is relieved to look back on a suc­cess­ful result. Per­haps wellnessHostel4000 in Saas-Fee stands out because it has com­bined so many new and uncer­tain chal­lenges from tim­ber con­struc­tion to well­ness and almost failed sev­er­al times before becom­ing one of our flag­ships.

What does the Swiss Foun­da­tion for Social Tourism mean to you?

After 30 years, I guess it’s a sec­ond home. The Foun­da­tion rep­re­sents an enor­mous net­work of won­der­ful part­ner­ships with which we have over­come many chal­lenges in all regions of Switzer­land. It stands for a lot of pas­sion and ded­i­ca­tion and, of course, a few sleep­less nights in addi­tion to a lot of joy. The Foun­da­tion is an employ­er with val­ues that I ful­ly sup­port.

What do you want for the Foun­da­tion over the next 50 years?

I hope that the Foun­da­tion will main­tain its objec­tives while con­stant­ly chang­ing in line with the new require­ments. It should approach its tasks with courage and con­vic­tion. What is par­tic­u­lar­ly need­ed is tourism that is envi­ron­men­tal­ly and social­ly friend­ly – I am look­ing for­ward to new imple­men­ta­tions of cli­mate-friend­ly con­struc­tion, good archi­tec­ture, region­al inte­gra­tion and many new com­bi­na­tions of uses that are more than just a youth hos­tel – new places cre­at­ed for real encoun­ters between guests, locals and inter­est­ed peo­ple.