The Swiss hotel industry continues to recover
Last year, the Swiss hotel industry continued the strong growth it had seen the previous year. Hotel overnight stays rose by 3.8 percent in 2018 to 38.8 million. In December, they also increased by 3.6 percent to 2.73 million.
However, according to Switzerland Tourism, the current recovery is just a first step on the way back to the strong years. The industry association announced on Tuesday at its annual media conference that 43 percent of hotel overnight stays from Europe were still missing in the Swiss mountain region compared to 2008. In recent years, Swiss tourism has suffered in particular from the strong Swiss franc, which has made vacations in Switzerland more expensive for Europeans.
However, 2017 had already seen a brilliant recovery, with overnight stays approaching the record years of 1990 and 2008 for the first time. However, the Alpine region is not yet "out of the woods". In the meantime, the guest mix has changed and with it the destinations visited within Switzerland. Tourism regions such as Graubünden, Ticino and Valais have lost ground in the last ten years, while Zurich and Geneva have made gains.
In terms of the origin of guests, the USA has now become the second most important foreign market for Swiss tourism after Germany. In 2018 alone, Americans accounted for well over 2 million overnight stays in Switzerland - an increase of 10 percent compared to the previous year. But Asian guests are also increasingly flocking to Switzerland.
More vacation guests are also coming from Europe again: Germany and the UK in particular have grown significantly, wrote Switzerland Tourism. The industry association is optimistic for 2019. It expects the positive trend from Europe to continue. In addition, the driving forces of India, China, the USA and Australia are also expected to pick up again in 2019.
In any case, industry members have already reported good prospects for the upcoming sports vacations. Perfect winter conditions had already prevailed over the festive period. And now the sports vacations are also expected to see an increase of over 4%.
However, Switzerland Tourism emphasizes that "massive" marketing efforts are still needed. The industry association would like more money from the federal government for this. The Federal Council has proposed to parliament that Switzerland Tourism be supported with CHF 55 million annually during the next legislative period. The industry wants to convince parliament to increase this amount to 60 million. The federal government contributes around 56 percent of the association's budget. (SDA)
