Swiss hotel industry puts on a final highlight in February

Because since mid-March, the world has been a different place. The Federal Council declared a state of emergency for Switzerland and brought public life largely to a standstill. Travel to the country has not been possible since then. And everyone else is urged to stay at home.

Hotels may remain open under special conditions. The Federal Council and the cantons are trying to keep the accommodations free as support for military and nursing staff or light cases from the hospitals.

Others try to rent out their hotel rooms as "temporary home offices. Nevertheless: Many establishments have closed their doors in order to reduce running costs.

Hardly any overview

"It's difficult at the moment to keep track of how many hotels are open," Markus Berger, head of corporate communications at the Switzerland Tourism organization, told AWP news agency on Friday.

According to a survey by Hotelleriesuisse and Switzerland Tourism, 57 percent of establishments were fully closed and 21 percent partially closed at the end of March. According to a directory from Hotelleriesuisse, however, only 400 hotels have currently reported being open despite the current situation.

That's 5 percent of the roughly 8,000 accommodations in Switzerland. "That's certainly not all of them," emphasized Berger, who called on hoteliers with open facilities to sign up for the register.

This would also be in the interest of tourism expert Vincenzo Carelli from the Federal Statistical Office FSO. Because without feedback from the hoteliers, the FSO cannot compile statistics.

How and what data the FSO will publish for the month of March is currently open. "Everything depends on how we get the data and closing periods for the month," Carelli told AWP.

Billions fall away

Swiss tourism has been losing billions since the emergency measures due to the pandemic and the sealing off of borders. According to the survey by Hotelleriesuisse and Switzerland Tourism, Swiss hotels will lose massive amounts of revenue in March (-69%), April (-90%) and May (-73%).

Based on an annual turnover of the Swiss hotel industry of 10.2 billion Swiss francs, a loss in turnover of almost 2 billion Swiss francs is therefore to be expected for the months of March to May alone.

Swiss tourism as a whole would lose 6.4 billion Swiss francs from March to May alone due to the coronavirus. Switzerland Tourism cites a study by the Institute of Tourism at the University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland HES-SO Valais-Wallis.

In fact, not only hoteliers are affected by the closures, but also restaurateurs, cable cars and other transport companies or landlords of vacation homes and apartments, the so-called parahotellerie.

By way of comparison, total tourism revenues in Switzerland amounted to 44.7 billion Swiss francs in 2017. Tourism therefore plays a significant role in the Swiss economy.

All was well until February

Yet the tourism year had started better than it had for a long time. Tourists were pouring into the country en masse, and with them the money.

Specifically, the number of overnight stays in January and February climbed by 6.3 and 6.4 percent respectively to a total of 6.3 million. Both Swiss and foreign guests slept more frequently in local hotels.

Even the Corona crisis was hardly able to affect the sector at the beginning of the year. Although the number of overnight hotel stays by guests from China fell by almost 62 percent in February, the number of guests from the euro countries (+16%) vacationing in Switzerland was higher than it had been for a long time. They more than made up for the shortfall, especially since February is not a typical travel month for Asian tourists in Switzerland.

So the prospects for Swiss tourism were bright - until the corona virus came along. Or as Switzerland Tourism puts it: a dramatic end after a promising start. (SDA)