MORE THAN 30 loss-making youth hostels are to close under plans to revitalise the ailing network announced yesterday.

Changing holiday tastes, combined with debts of more than £30 million, have driven the Youth Hostels Association (YHA) to take the radical step, which will lead to the loss of about 70 workers.

Roger Clarke, the chief executive, said the closures, many in remote locations, would help to fund an £18 million package to update the rest of the association’s 227 hostels in England and Wales over the next ten years.

Gone are the days when generations of children experienced their first taste of the British countryside while staying in hostels with large dormitories, drafty communal washrooms and a list of chores for the self-catering kitchen.

Instead, with budget flights luring young people abroad and boutique hotels changing the face of weekend breaks, youth hostels are having to modernise to compete. Bedrooms for two, four or six people are replacing bigger rooms shared with strangers, private showers are replacing washrooms and many hostels are now serving alcohol to accompany high-quality meals made with local produce, Mr Clarke said.

Environmentally minded visitors are being courted with Fair Trade tea and coffee in the kitchens and a range of renewable energy schemes.

One hostel in the North Yorkshire village of Lockton has been given a £250,000 eco-friendly makeover, installing solar-powered electricity and sheep’s wool insulation. Another in the Pennines has a wind turbine and reed bed waste-disposal facilities.

“We’re still a no-frills operation but we want to be a modern budget option. People don’t like sleeping in big dormitories and they want modern and private washing facilities,” Mr Clarke said.

“We’ve also really revamped our catering so that eating is fun and not just about filling you up after a walk.

“We see our future as being with young people so we are targeting families with children, schools and youth organisations, and young people travelling independently for the first time.”

The YHA’s board of trustees agreed at the weekend to press ahead with the overhaul after a 12-month review. Membership, which peaked in the early 1990s at 320,000, has fallen to 250,000. Cash from the 32 hostel closures will be used to slash long-term borrowing and reduce interest payments.

The closures will begin this year and include hostels in Northumberland, the Lake District, the Peak District, Pembrokeshire and the Quantocks, as well as popular tourist centres such as Brighton, Hastings and the Isle of Wight.

Jacquetta Sewster, the director of campaigns at the Ramblers’ Association, said that she was very sad and disappointed. “It’s obviously going to have an impact on walkers,” she said.

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