Arosa Continues To Do Well With The Right Summer Mix
The all-year holiday destination Arosa can look back on a very successful summer around two months after the end of the 2023 summer season. With more than 280,000 overnight stays, the holiday region in Schanfigg recorded its second most successful summer result. The Graubünden mountain village continues to be a popular holiday destination for the Swiss and also attracts foreign guests. This is made possible by the creative and unique mix of natural paradise, event destination and multi-generational travel destination, with which Arosa has its finger on the pulse of the times and is sometimes even ahead of it.
Arosa has 281,064 overnight stays in the summer of 2023, marking the second most overnight stays in the history of the Graubünden holiday region. This corresponds to the full-year figures from the 2022/23 financial year, and the figures for the 5-year average are correspondingly positive, with more than a quarter of a million overnight stays achieved in the summer for the fourth time in a row. The good number of overnight stays makes an important contribution to the fact that the holiday region, which also includes the Schanfigg valley in terms of tourism, is once again aiming for more than a million overnight stays throughout the year. The domestic Swiss market was and remains the most important target group for Arosa Tourism. Seven out of ten overnight guests in the hotels and holiday apartments came to Arosa from Switzerland in the 2023 summer season. As usual, the guests from Germany were in second place, accounting for almost ten percent of the overnight stays and spending their summer holidays in the Graubünden mountain village.
Tourism director Roland Schuler is pleased with the good figures from the summer: “Arosa offers an incredibly large portfolio and has a unique appeal. I am pleased to see that all top performers contribute to Arosa's attractiveness with individual efforts and projects and make our holiday region a year-round holiday destination. This is the only way the product will remain desirable for guests in the future.”
Mountain railways and Arosa Bear Sanctuary are the most popular attractions
For many years, summer overnight guests have benefited from the Arosa Card from their first overnight stay in Arosa. This attractive summer offer guarantees free access to a variety of sporting and cultural activities and means of transport. The most popular thing in summer 2023 was to use the mountain railways, which can be used completely free of charge with the Arosa Card from mid-June to the end of October. During this time, more than 100,000 first-time entries were booked with the Arosa Card. The Arosa Bear Sanctuary is also a big attraction. In its fifth year of existence, Switzerland's first bear protection center for bears rescued by FOUR PAWS recorded more than 21,000 overnight guests. Behind the two top attractions, the boat rental on the Obersee and the rope park also recorded figures in the six-digit and high five-digit ranges respectively.
With regard to the mountain railways, the high number of first-time entries underlines the importance of the comprehensive range of mountain railways even during the summer months, something that has been reliably relied upon in Arosa for many years. At the same time, it confirms the good figures of Arosa Bergbahnen AG, which achieved its second-best result in history in the 2022/23 financial year and generated sales of over 32 million Swiss francs. The very good annual financial statements allow for investments, some of which are also invested in photovoltaic systems on our own properties and train stations.
Sustainable and inclusive into the future with Arosa 2030
The mountain railways thus illustrate the fluid transformation of the individual service providers, which under the umbrella of “Arosa 2030” is intended to ensure that Arosa becomes the most sustainable destination in the Alps. In addition to the ecological and economically compatible orientation towards the future, social aspects also play an important role in the future orientation. Arosa strives for nothing less than to make the entire destination fit for people with disabilities. In the summer of 2023, in cooperation with MountOn, the existing leisure activities in the holiday village in Schanfigg were checked for accessibility and relevant information on accessibility was collected in order to expand access options for all people in the short and medium term and to promote inclusion in Arosa.
Successful integration of the Schanfigg valley
The summer of 2023 once again made it clear that the integration of the villages along the Schanfigg is becoming increasingly successful. With the Schanfigger Höhen- und Dorfweg, the valley presents two extremely attractive and eventful hiking routes with breathtaking panoramas. The Walser settlements and the associated historical buildings as well as the Walser Culture Days, which were held for the first time in 2023, offer and offered authentic close-up experiences with the culture and history of the Walser people, who have a very influential role in the region. The small and beautiful towns from Lüen-Castiel to Litzirüti have many other sights and offer up-close nature experiences, which will be further integrated into the existing offerings from Arosa in the summer in the future.
