YHA New Zealand closes all hostels after 90 years

End of an era: YHA Mount Cook Village will close along with all eleven YHA New Zealand hostels. Photo / Getty Images, Craig Pershouse

The Youth Hostel Association of New Zealand (YHA) is to close all eleven of their hostels as of 15 December, after 89 years as a staple of the tourism landscape.

The New Zealand chapter of Hostelling International has said that they had "no option but to permanently close the doors".

With a significant shift towards budget domestic travellers and family groups, the company were able to double their domestic bed nights during the Pandemic. However, the YHA National Board said that this was not enough to offset the loss of international backpackers for almost two years.

After 19 months of severe restructuring and faced with the prospect of another summer without international tourists, the YHA will not be reopening in 2022.

"YHA staff have been incredible during extraordinary times" said GM Simon Cartwright, "It is an ending none of us wanted but we want to make sure we exit in a way which ensures our people are not left out of pocket."

Affected staff and customers have been informed that all remaining hostels will close.

The closure comes the day before Auckland's travel border is due to lift.

This closure will only affect hostels directly managed by YHA, with 23 partner hostels continuing to operate independently.

The hostels scheduled to close are in Auckland, Rotorua, Wellington, Christchurch, Lake Tekapo, Aoraki Mt Cook, Wanaka, Queenstown Central, Queenstown Lakefront, Franz Josef and Te Anau.

NZ tourism cornerstone 90 years on

Since opening the first New Zealand hostels in 1932 in Canterbury, New Zealand became a key location for the worldwide Hostelling charity.

By 2019 YHA was New Zealand's largest network of backpacker accommodation with over 30 hostels nationwide. The newest of which was the Lake Tekapo YHA.

However this was greatly strained by the Pandemic restructuring for a more modest, domestic market.

"This is a sad time for our staff, our members and our industry. YHA has been a cornerstone of youth travel in New Zealand for 89 years," said Cartwright.

"Unfortunately, the Covid 19 pandemic has just gone on too long for us to be able to ride it out. Today is a sad day for tourism in New Zealand."