Switzerland Tourism draws negative interim balance for summer vacation season
Switzerland Tourism has conducted a nationwide industry survey of tourist destinations, attractions, and major mountain railways. Although many domestic visitors are flocking to the mountains, overseas and business tourism in the cities has dried up, leaving a hole in the interim financial results.
Mountain destinations throughout the country report a surge in Swiss guests from June to August. The average number of overnight hotel stays rose by a substantial 37%, strongly influenced by the mountain resorts that are traditionally popular with locals. That is one million more overnight stays than at the same time in 2019.
However, foreign demand for Swiss mountain summer vacations remains within narrow limits. Despite the first tourists from neighboring countries and the Benelux countries, local tourism players are expecting a decline of at least 44 percent compared to the previous year, i.e. 1.3 million fewer foreign hotel nights.
This huge drop could not be compensated for by the additional Swiss guests. As a result, the overall balance for the summer vacation season in the mountains also looks negative, with a drop of over 5% compared to the previous year.
Mountain vacations in Switzerland
The traditional Alpine destinations in particular are more popular than ever with Swiss guests, both as day trips and overnight stays. This boom is also attracting many local "first visitors" to the mountains who had never before taken a Swiss mountain summer vacation. Encouragingly, many of these Swiss tourists are staying longer in the destinations when they stay overnight and are spending more than they did in the past.
Stays and visits from the other language region continue to be in high demand: French-speaking Swiss are discovering German-speaking Switzerland, as Guido Buob, Managing Director of Appenzellerland Tourism (AI), among others, vividly describes: "We ran out of French brochures back in July and had to reprint them." Bruno Huggler, Director of Crans-Montana Tourism & Congress, also confirms a strong increase in guests from French-speaking Switzerland in particular.
Devastating situation in the cities
Tourists from overseas with their preference for city breaks are still missing. And business and conference tourism is also still largely absent. Events are also still having to be canceled due to the pandemic. This is hitting tourism providers in Swiss cities hard.
Foreign guests alone accounted for over 2.5 million hotel overnight stays during the summer vacation months, which corresponds to a drop of 63 percent. In some medium-sized cities, however, there were definitely more Swiss guests this summer. Here too, they often came from other language regions and spent a higher daily budget than in the previous year.
The major mountain railroads and top attractions, which are usually popular with tourists from overseas, are also still suffering greatly from the absence of long-distance visitors.
Negative overall balance emerging
In the city and in the mountains, there was a total shortfall of 3.2 million overnight hotel stays from June to August, which is -27% compared to the previous year. Tourism organizations and providers across the country are very concerned and cautious about the outlook for autumn: due to the great uncertainties caused by the pandemic, it is difficult or even impossible for destinations and service providers to make forecasts. However, the current booking situation is very weak and concerns about further major declines are widespread.
