Tourists offered homeless holidays

Charities accuse the Dutch travel company of trivialising homelessness

By CNN's Peter Wilkinson

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Homeless charities have attacked plans by a Dutch holiday company to offer "rough sleeper holidays" in European cities.

Kamstra Travel, based in Eemshaven, in the north of The Netherlands, is offering tourists the opportunity -- at a cost of £300 ($430) -- to live like vagrants on the streets of London, Paris, Brussels, Prague and Amsterdam.

As part of the package, they would receive return flights, be distributed around the cities in small groups along with a guide and left to look after themselves without money for three nights.

The holidaymakers would be given a sleeping bag and either a musical instrument or a sketchpad and pencil with which they could try to earn some money. Only on their fourth night would they be given a meal and a bed, although tourists who felt it too tough could go to a hotel at any stage.

Kamstra's president Bart Ganssens, who said he himself had experienced homelessness as a student in Paris 12 years ago, said the holiday would be a "creative adventure" for business people that would make them stronger and more sociable.

He told CNN the first group of six Dutch tourists would travel to Paris next March.

But the plans ran into strong criticism from the UK government's Rough Sleepers' Unit, which has cut the number of homeless people on Britain's streets from 1,850 in 1998 to 700 this year.

A spokeswoman told CNN the department was concerned about reports of the rough sleeper holidays, and planned to ask Kamstra for more details about its plans.

"The streets are dangerous and very unpleasant and it is not sensible to promote holidays there," she said. "We plan to write to the holiday firm and point out to them the statistics showing that rough sleepers are about 15 times more likely to be attacked than other members of the public."

Mat Cornish of UK homeless charity Shelter accused Kamstra of "poking fun" at the issue of homelessness. He told CNN: "We couldn't support any initiative that's derogatory towards homeless people, and we feel this company is just using them to market itself.

"If companies and people do want to highlight homelessness they should link up with organisations like Shelter so they can publicise the issue in a positive fashion."

Jim Minton, director of the UK Centrepoint charity, added: "Sleeping rough is very dangerous and any company offering "homeless holidays" is trivialising the experiences that young people Centrepoint sees have gone through."

A spokeswoman for London's police force warned the holidaymakers could also face arrest. She told said the concept of "slumming tourism" was "at best in bad taste and at worst could have serious consequences."

She said: "Police will act firmly with beggars who threaten to abuse the generosity of Londoners by pretending to be homeless. We have a duty to apply the law and the Vagrancy Act provides the power of arrest.

"It is therefore inadvisable for people to sleep rough if they have an alternative."

But Kamstra's Bart Ganssens rejected accusations that he was simply exploiting the issue of homelessness and said he hoped to put pressure on politicians to do something about the problem.

"It is ridiculous that homelessness exists in the 21st century, and it must be solved. You can imagine how tough life is on the streets but experiencing it is completely different. I disagree with those people who say our plan is immoral, and hope that we can work together to solve the problem," he added.