Switzerland Tourism - 37% More Hotel Stays By Local Guests In The Mountain Areas, But 44% Drop In Foreign Tourists
The interim balance for the summer from Switzerland Tourism (ST) shows a pleasing 37% more hotel overnight stays by local guests in the mountain area, but also a shocking 44% drop in foreign tourists. The feedback from the tourism industry also confirms that the Swiss are very enthusiastic about vacationing in their own country, even beyond language borders. In the cities, however, the lack of overseas and business tourism is tearing a big hole in the bill.
Mountain destinations across the country report a rush of Swiss guests in the months of June to August. In terms of hotel overnight stays, there is an average increase of 37%, strongly influenced by the mountain vacation spots traditionally popular with locals. That is one million overnight stays more than at the same time in 2019. However, the foreign demand for Swiss mountain summer holidays is limited. Despite the first tourists from neighboring countries and the Benelux countries, local tourism players are expecting a decline of at least 44% compared to the previous year, i.e. 1.3 million foreign hotel nights less.
This huge minus could not be compensated for by the additional Swiss guests either. So it looks for the summer vacation season in the mountains after a negative overall balance with a minus of more than 5% compared to the previous year. These results come from a nationwide industry survey of tourist destinations, sights and large mountain railways that ST recently carried out.
The traditional Alpine destinations in particular are more popular than ever with Swiss guests, both as day trips and overnight stays. This boom also leads many local “first visitors” to the mountains who had never taken a Swiss mountain summer holiday before. Fortunately, many of these Swiss tourists stay noticeably longer in the destinations when they spend the night and afford more than they had in the past.
Stays and visits to the other linguistic region are also very popular: French-speaking Switzerland are discovering German-speaking Switzerland, as Guido Buob, Managing Director of Appenzellerland Tourism (AI), vividly describes: "We used up the number of French brochures in July and had to reprint them". In French-speaking Switzerland, for example, Bruno Huggler, Director of Crans-Montana Tourism & Congress, confirms a strong increase in the number of German-speaking guests in particular.
Overseas tourists with their preference for city breaks are still missing. And business and congress tourism is still largely canceled. Events still have to be canceled due to the pandemic. This has a massive impact on tourism providers in Swiss cities. Foreign guests alone miss over 2.5 million hotel overnight stays in the summer vacation months, which corresponds to a decrease of 63%. In some medium-sized cities, however, there were definitely more Swiss guests this summer. Here too, these often came from other language regions and used a higher daily budget than in the previous year.
The big mountain railways and top attractions, which are usually popular with tourists from overseas, still suffer a lot from the absence of foriegn guests.
According to the current status, there is a shortfall of a total of 3.2 million hotel overnight stays in the city and on the mountain from June to August, which is -27% compared to the previous year. Tourism organizations and providers across the country are very concerned and cautious about the prospects for autumn: due to the great uncertainty caused by the pandemic, it is difficult or even impossible for destinations and service providers to make forecasts. The current booking situation is very weak, however, and there is widespread concern about further major declines.
