"Crammed into a coach": Jürg Schmid snubs ASTAG

At "Tagesschau" report on February 21 was about the fact that more and more Chinese guests prefer to travel through Switzerland individually instead of in groups. Jürg Schmid, director of the national marketing and sales organization Switzerland Tourism made a statement on the matter, saying, among other things, "It would be totally wrong to mean that the Chinese love to travel in large groups, crammed into a tour bus. The Chinese are also individualists."

"Unsustainable denigration"

A statement that outraged the Swiss Commercial Vehicle Association ASTAG and the Car Tourisme Suisse trade group. In a statement issued on Wednesday, the association led by central president Adrian Amstutz launched an all-out attack on Switzerland Tourism. With his "indefensible denigration", Schmid "completely fails to recognize the enormous importance of the private coach sector for tourism throughout the country". Schmid's "defamatory statements" were "simply disrespectful" and showed "incredible ignorance". With more than 30 million passengers per year, they already make a "massive" contribution to tourism and many leisure activities would not even be possible without buses, especially for older people. The "one-sided preference of travel modes," as Jürg Schmid put it, is "long since passé. Modern mobility functions multimodally.

When asked about the accusations by Werbewoche, Switzerland Tourism rejects them. Of course Jürg Schmid knows and appreciates the great importance of the coach industry for Swiss tourism, says Markus Berger, Head of Corporate Communications. "In the interview, he merely spoke of the cliché of the many Asian guests in full buses, and contrasted this cliché with the reality of the quite existing trend toward individual travel." In no way did he mean to badmouth the coach industry in any way.

Foreign buses on the Grand Tour of Switzerland

The ASTAG association criticizes and demands something else: Switzerland Tourism should stand up against prohibited cabotage journeys with foreign coaches. By law, journeys between two vacation destinations within Switzerland are only permitted with vehicles that are registered in Switzerland. Nevertheless, bus companies from abroad are repeatedly used - especially on Switzerland Tourism's Grand Tour of Switzerland - in a prohibited manner. By clearly pointing out the legal regulations to travel agencies, companies and private customers, Switzerland Tourism could make an important contribution to support in the interest of the entire country, the association demands.

Switzerland Tourism also rejects this accusation. "We are not aware of any "cabotage transports" on the tourist Grand Tour of Switzerland," says Berger. Violations of the cabotage ban between Swiss cities are a political problem that must also be solved at this level, he adds. "Switzerland Tourism does not make any political statements," the marketing organization's head of corporate communications notes. (hae)