Hi Pedro:
Thanks very much for your input. Could you please elaborate on what you mean by "the BTB will not sanction the word backpackers?" Also, why does the BTB have to approve your project BEFORE you built? Doesn't make sense to me.
Sounds like the BTB is very biased towards BEEG businesses (no surprise here), but the thought process is very narrow minded. I am sure that as an owner of a backpack inn yourself that you will find out quickly enough that forty backpackers in your hostel at $15 a head per night might not seem like a lot of money to some, but the net effect of the food they eat at your establishment, the drinks the consume from your premises, and the tours they book through you far outweighs what you loose in lodging income.
There are visitors for hotel rooms at $150 per night and there are visitors for beds for $15 per night. Which type of accommodations is offered by any outfit should really be dictated by what the market will bear and not by the dictates of office-bound bureaucrats who work for someone else because they lack the know how to go into business for themselves, I think. Picture the irony in that.
Cheers,
Wendy