Titlis mountain railroads make dumping accusations against competitors
In the battle to attract Asian visitors, mountain railways are trying to lure customers with rock-bottom prices that don't even cover their costs. The Titlis Mountain Railways are now appealing to their competitors.
There is talk of "price dumping by some competitors" in the Chinese market in the Titlis Railways' half-year report, as the Switzerland at the weekend writes in the current issue. According to Head of Marketing Peter Reinle, we occasionally see price reductions of up to 50 percent.
Reinle therefore appeals to the competition and warns that the strategy of luring guests away from the competition with low prices usually only works for one or two years - then the effect wears off and guests who are primarily concerned with the price move on to the next low-cost provider. If more guests came due to the low prices, the turnover would remain the same in the end, but the surrounding villages would suffer from the masses of people. "That can't be the way forward in small-scale Switzerland," warns Reinle.
Stefan Otz, CEO of the neighboring Rigi Railways, rejects the accusation of dumping. However, a certain degree of fierce competition is necessary, as there are "not too many Swiss mountains that international tour operators include in their programs for their Asian guests". The Chinese guest also pays at least as much as a Swiss guest without a discount - however, the Swiss guest has more left over for the mountain railroad as there is no tour operator in between. The latter often buy thousands of tickets before the start of the season and therefore benefit from special prices. (hae)
