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Chemnitz (dpa / sn) - Lockdown and the ban on school trips have caused the number of overnight stays in Saxon youth hostels to collapse.
As the regional association of the German Youth Hostel Association announced on Friday, the hostels in Saxony recorded around 147,000 overnight stays last year.
In 2019 there were more than twice as many at 348,000.
According to the association, sales also fell by 40 percent in the pandemic year 2020 - around 12.5 million euros were generated in the previous year.
The youth hostels were hit hard by the situation, they said.
The elimination of class and group trips is particularly difficult.
"The large number of corona-related cancellations, mainly from the school and group area, literally pulled the rug out from under our feet," said state chairman Thomas Mauersberger.
After the end of the first lockdown, numerous families would have visited the Saxon youth hostels.
But that did not compensate for the omission of group trips.
Mauersberger announced that he would like to expand the offer with special topics for families this year.
In addition, programs for school trips are currently being redesigned.
There is a specially developed hygiene concept for each youth hostel.
"With all of these measures, we see ourselves very well prepared and are ready as soon as a reopening is possible," said Mauersberger.
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In addition, the youth hostels have been helping in the past few weeks to accommodate Bundeswehr soldiers who, among other things, have been working in health departments and hospitals to combat the pandemic.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210226-99-607220 / 2