Grand Tour of Switzerland works
A representative survey shows that the Grand Tour of Switzerland generated over 290,000 additional overnight stays.
On behalf of the Grand Tour of Switzerland (VGTS) association, touring guests along the route were surveyed and counted this summer. Projected between 45,000 and 55,000 guests were on the Grand Tour of Switzerland. Thus, already in the second season of this new tourist product, the quantitative target was reached. Moreover, the level of awareness of the route is already 43 percent after the second season.
Between July and September of this year, the market research institute Publitest interviewed touring guests at twenty different points along the 1,600 km Grand Tour of Switzerland as part of a representative survey. The evaluation now shows that the high target of 50,000 guests in summer 2016, which the VGTS had set itself when it was launched in 2015, was achieved. According to the extrapolation, between 45,000 and 55,000 tourers were on Switzerland's most picturesque round trip this summer. The results also show that awareness of the route has already increased by almost 60 percent in the second season and is now already at 43 percent.
Domestic and foreign Grand Tour guests spend an average of 6.5 days on the road - a length of stay that is quite respectable, especially in comparison to the worldwide trend towards ever shorter stays and the average length of stay of all tourists in the Swiss hotel industry of 1.9 days.1. Grand Tour travelers generated around 290,000 to 360,000 overnight stays (hotel and parahotellerie) in the 2016 summer season.
"We are very pleased with the positive results in only the second year of the Grand Tour and this gives us additional momentum for further development," Maria Sägesser, Managing Director of VGTS, is pleased to note. "Especially in the area of average daily spending, I still see potential for increase," she adds. Here, the association's long-term target is 150 francs per day and person. Sägesser describes the just under 90 francs spent by this year's Grand Tour guests, which the survey brought to light, as "already a pleasing added value, but one that can still be increased in the course of the next few seasons.
Next year, according to the statement, the marketing and product development of the Grand Tour of Switzerland will be further advanced to make the tour even more experiential and visible.
Berherbergungsstatistik Sommer 2016 (May to October), Swiss Federal Statistical Office1
