"The time of Swiss guest records in the pandemic is definitely over" Switzerland Tourism Director Martin Nydegger told the media in Zurich on Thursday. The share of Swiss guests is decreasing again, the competition in the south and at the sea is there again and is in demand. "And the recovery from abroad, from Europe and overseas, continues to take a long time." 

"Even though the number of guests from distant markets is steadily increasing, we are not yet able to compensate for this with this guest segment."Monika König, head of marketing at the Aletsch Arena, said on behalf of many mountain resorts. Many and important guests from abroad would still be missing.

The energy crisis, inflation and the strong Swiss franc put pressure on the figures, it was said at the media conference. In addition, the most important country of origin, Germany, is not doing well economically. This makes the already price-sensitive Germans watch the prices even more.

Chinese:inside and Japanese:inside still missing

Even though demand from North America, the Gulf States and Southeast Asia is robust, overseas guests are still missing overall, Nydegger said. China and Japan are still suffering badly from Long Covid. In addition, there is a change in travel behavior in China, he said. After the pandemic, the Chinese no longer wanted to travel so often in large groups, but rather to explore Switzerland in small groups or as individual tourists. This is noticeable in the number of overnight stays.

And Swiss guests, who were extremely loyal to their own country during the pandemic, wanted to travel abroad again. Moreover, the Swiss are sensitive to the weather. "When it's not so warm and beautiful, it immediately shows in the numbers", said the Switzerland Tourism Director.

In addition, the July figures for the cable cars show that large tourist areas such as Graubünden have fewer admissions than in the previous year. "This is an indicator for us that we should not expect this to continue"Nydegger said: "We have to be prepared for the fact that it won't be quite as easy as in the past. Competition is back in full swing."

The heat wave this summer, with record temperatures on the Mediterranean, is of little help to Switzerland, he said. "People want to go south and warmth"Nydegger said. Although tourists also come to the Swiss mountains because of the cool, but the shift is slow.

Proportion of Swiss:in will decline

The share of Swiss visitors in local tourism is likely to decline again in a few years and level off at 45 to 50 percent, said Nydegger. Before Corona, Swiss visitors accounted for 45 percent of all visitors.

In the first half of 2023, more than half of the 19.5 million overnight stays in Swiss hotels were attributable to Swiss nationals. Thanks to Swiss nationals (+16.8 percent), the Swiss hotel industry is on course for a record. From January to the end of June, 3.6 percent more overnight stays were recorded than in the previous record year 2019.

Less encouraging, he said, were the numbers from abroad, which were 8 percent below the level of 2019. For overseas guests, the minus amounts to 10 percent, for European tourists to 5.7 percent.

In playing catch-up, however, they don't want to go back to 2019, he said. "We want a more sustainable tourism that is also accepted by the population", said Nydegger. That's why the marketing organization is counting on guests staying longer in Switzerland. As a result, there would be fewer flights.

And Switzerland Tourism is focusing on year-round tourism. In particular, the organization wants to do more advertising for the fall. Autumn is to be promoted as its own season.