SP calls for more sustainable tourism and a national booking platform

The mass influx from China has attracted a lot of media attention in recent days: as a reward for its good business results, the cosmetics company Jeunesse Global has flown 12,000 Chinese employees to Switzerland. They are traveling in groups of up to 4000 people.

As much as Switzerland may benefit financially from mass tourism from Asia, developments of this kind are met with criticism in many places. In Lucerne, for example, the problem of "overtourism" has long been an issue - the city is now so overpopulated by tourists that the quality of life for locals is suffering and Lucerne as a destination is also losing its appeal (Werbewoche.ch reported). The Titlis region has also recently shown concern by the masses of tourists from Lucerne.

The SP Switzerland is now blowing the same horn. In a position paper on tourism, the party makes it clear that it thinks little of mass tourism from long-distance markets. This is reported by the NZZ am Sonntag in its current issue. According to the paper, the Confederation's performance mandate to the marketing organization Switzerland Tourism should stipulate that "the proportion of guests from distant markets may no longer be increased compared to those from local European markets". Local and European guests should therefore be encouraged to travel by train rather than by plane.

The SP proposes concrete measures to achieve this. For example, airline tickets should be subject to a climate tax and foreign trains should be granted direct connections to the Alpine region. At the same time, it emphasizes that the aim is neither to fight tourism nor to push it back - rather, the aim is to "effectively promote tourism". This means that in future, social and ecological aspects should be given equal consideration to economic aspects. For example, Councillor of States Hans Stöckli called in a motion for the federal government to set up a fund for the renovation of hotels and vacation accommodation in mountain regions, as there is often a lack of equity capital for urgently needed investments. As a result, improvements in energy efficiency usually fall by the wayside and heating costs in winter are far too high.

The SP is also calling for a national booking platform financed by the federal government for all hotel rooms and vacation apartments available for rent in Switzerland. This should not only promote occupancy, but also limit the power of foreign booking portals such as Booking.com or Airbnb.

The reason for the SP's new interest in tourism is not only ecological concerns, but also the large number of employees in the sector, particularly in mountain regions. They also want to prevent local mountain railroads from falling into the hands of foreign investors, as has increasingly been the case recently. Tourist infrastructure is a public service, says Stöckli. Control of this must remain with the locals.