Asians save the summer season
Despite the strong Swiss franc, the summer season was relatively stable for Swiss hotels—thanks to guests from China. This winter, however, hoteliers will have to rely primarily on domestic tourists and hope that their advertising campaign pays off.
The efforts to get Chinese tourists interested in skiing vacations in Switzerland are great. The marketing organization Switzerland Tourism, for example, launched a programme with Chinese-speaking ski instructors in eight ski resorts two years ago. However, demand is still manageable and the instructors are hardly ever booked. The situation is quite different in the summer months. From May to October, local hotels recorded 262,000 overnight stays from China, a good 37 percent more than in the same period last year, according to the accommodation statistics published by the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) on Monday.
In total, there were 570,000 bookings from the Asian continent during this period.
Switzerland is also becoming increasingly popular with guests from the Gulf States (+22%), India (+26%) and South Korea (+20%). This means that guests from Asia have once again pulled the coals out of the fire for Swiss hoteliers. It is thanks to them that the number of overnight stays - down by a total of 0.7 percent to 20 million bookings - did not fall more sharply.
Slump in bookings from Germany
Demand from Germany, the most important foreign market for Swiss hotels, was particularly weak in the summer months. Here, the number of overnight stays fell by a good 15 percent or 97,000 units. Taking all European countries of origin together, the decline amounted to just under 11 percent. Domestic demand was also slightly below the previous year's level. The 8.7 million overnight stays correspond to a decrease of 0.5 percent. For Hotelleriesuisse, the new figures are in line with expectations. The KOF Swiss Economic Institute at ETH Zurich had even forecast a slightly stronger decline of minus 1.0 percent. According to Hotelleriesuisse spokesman Beat Waldmeier, the fact that the decline was somewhat less pronounced is due to the good weather in June and July, as well as the slight appreciation of the euro and dollar against the Swiss franc.
Hope for loyalty from the Swiss
While local tourism was able to count on Asian guests in the summer, the focus is now shifting to Swiss tourists for the winter months. However, the uncertainty here is much greater. A survey of regional associations has shown that the Swiss are booking their ski vacations at increasingly short notice, Waldmeier told sda. Accordingly, the factors of weather and snow play a central role. Added to this is the pressure on room prices, which, according to Waldmeier, is still continuing: In order to remain competitive with neighboring countries after the Swiss franc shock in mid-January, hoteliers have adjusted their room rates across the board.
Domestic advertising campaign
Switzerland Tourism has also recognized the importance of domestic guests. The Swiss are the most important target audience in the current winter campaign. In addition to former astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the marketing organization has brought in many Swiss winter sports stars such as Iouri Podladtchikov, Dario Cologna, Dominique Gisin and Fanny Smith. The KOF is predicting stagnation in hotel overnight stays for Swiss tourism in the winter season as a whole. The number of overnight stays by domestic guests is expected to rise by 1.1 percent, while the number of tourists from abroad will fall by 0.7 percent. The KOF forecasts a 1.4 percent decline in visitor frequency for mountain railroads. (SDA)
