Swiss tourism appears to pick up
Thursday August 19, 2010 - Email this article to a friend

The Swiss hotel industry may be picking up; the first half of 2010 saw more overnight stays than during the same period a year ago.

Figures just released by the Federal Statistics Office said there were 17.5 million overnight stays in the first 6 months of the year.

An increase of 2.1% on the previous year.

There was a 2.9% rise in guests from Switzerland, who accounted for 7.5 million of those stays, but over all a decline in visitors from other parts of Europe.

The number of Asian visitors is growing with a 16% increase over the first 6 months of 2010.

In one month alone, June, there were 32% more Asian visitors than the previous year.

Most came from China, but many were from India, Japan and the Middle East.

We have already reported on the Swisss attempts to woo the Indian market.

It has also held a rather unique PR stunt; a cricket match held at 3,454m on a glaicer by the Eiger.

However, there are some concerns that the recent crash of the Glacier Express, where a Japanese tourist was killed and many others injured, might hit the market.

Overnight stays upTourism is big business in Switzerland, employing 4.2% of the workforce and making up 3% of economic output.

However the global economic problems, the rise in value of the Swiss Franc and other factors are causing some  concerns.

An economic research group based in Basel, BAK, said earlier this summer that things would get worse before they got better.

It predicted another 2 years of problems ahead for the Swiss tourism industry.

The government is worried.

The plan is to have a more co-ordinated approach from government agencies, tourist boards, academics and the private sector.

Switzerland Tourism is reported to be "extremely pleased" with the plan.

The tourism industry was given 12m Swiss Francs as part of a stimulus package as we reported at the time within this story on PlanetSKI.

However, the Swiss government last month decided to stop buying euros and so the Swiss Franc has become expensive making it very unattractive for British and Euro-zone tourists.

The image of Switzerland being expensive will be a hard one to shake off in the years to come whatever happens in the real world of currency fluctuations.

It has already had a significant impact.

The ski industry is one area that saw falls.

In Verbier, where PlanetSKi is based during the winter, the British market fell by around 15% last season.

Those people that did visit the resort reduced their spending with less money spent in the restaurants and bars.

"We took a picnic lunch up the mountain each day and definitely spent less," one British holiday-maker told us.  "We sought out the happy hour bars and cut back on ski lessons too."

Last month a PlanetSKI reader in Geneva has emailed us to tell us that a large beer in a fairly average bar cost 8.75 Swiss francs.That's a whopping £5.30.

A recent report showed that people spent 3.8% less while on holiday as they tried to reduce their costs.

Some analysts say that Switzerland must work to reduce its reliance on the European market.

If the new figures are the start of a trend then this may already be happening.

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