Cowichan needs more hostels
Dear EDC board:
I respectfully suggest our Economic Development Cowichan work as a catalyst to pair local entrepreneurs with the need for more family/youth hostels in lovely Cowichan.
This type of budget facility — aside from the welcoming single-room Cowichan Valley Hostel on Ellison Road — is still sadly lacking in our rightly applauded tourism-heavy valley.
I believe such affordable accommodation is a natural for Cowichan.
First, families and youths travelling the world have few accommodation options on shoestring budgets.
Hostels, standard in many countries in which I have travelled, need not be stereotypic cramped bunk rooms, but private, smaller rooms offering privacy and security for belongings to singles, couples and others.
The hostel setting could also boast some tenting space in our many pastoral settings.
And our Warm Land’s mild, coveted Mediterranean climate would potentially deliver us more travellers and seasonal workers year-round.
Second, word about hostels — call them budget hotels if you wish — spreads like wildfire on what is affectionately called the “coconut telegraph” with reliable word-of-mouth advertising propelling travellers to Cowichan and elsewhere.
Word about such a hostel could further ingrain Cowichan in many travel books, including the respected The Lonely Planet, used as where- and how-to bible by many folks on the road.
Third, Cowichan is shamefully lacking in many budget ranges of travel accommodation.
Please add more hostels — potentially part of the Youth Hostels Worldwide system — to your list of must-haves.
Peter W. Rusland
North Cowichan
