«Every opening is a very special moment»

Happy Birthday Swiss Foundation for Social Tourism! In an anniversary interview on the occasion of its 50th birthday, CEO René Dobler talks about the Foundation’s greatest challenges, unforgettable moments and future prospects.

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.

The most impor­tant mile­stones of the SFST at a glance.

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.

Togeth­er with part­ners, the Swiss Foun­da­tion for Social Tourism is com­mit­ted to mak­ing leisure activ­i­ties mean­ing­ful. © Corsin Näff

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 time flies: René Dobler at the del­e­gates meet­ing in Davos in 2003. © Swiss Youth Hos­tels

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.

The home of the styl­ish Basel Youth Hos­tel used to be a silk fac­to­ry. © Michel van Gron­del

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.

well­nessHos­tel4000 in Saas-Fee is proof that per­se­ver­ance and endurance pay off. © Michel van Gron­del / Dominik Gehl

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.

About René Dobler

René Dobler trained as an archi­tect at ETH Zurich and also com­plet­ed a sup­ple­men­tary degree in con­struc­tion eco­nom­ics. He start­ed work­ing for the Swiss Youth Hos­tels in 1993 as an exter­nal con­sul­tant. In 1999, he was appoint­ed Gen­er­al Man­ag­er of the Swiss Foun­da­tion for Social Tourism, which is respon­si­ble for the con­struc­tion and devel­op­ment of the youth hos­tels. In his many years of work, he has shaped the build­ings of the youth hos­tels into a cor­po­rate archi­tec­ture. His great com­mit­ment to sus­tain­able devel­op­ment has received numer­ous awards. In the inter­na­tion­al youth hos­tel asso­ci­a­tion Hostelling Inter­na­tion­al, he has played a major role in the devel­op­ment of glob­al stan­dards, qual­i­ty assur­ance and sus­tain­abil­i­ty man­age­ment.

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