Switzerland Tourism sees an upswing in summer

(sda) “The summer is going to be strong,” said Switzerland Tourism Director Martin Nydegger in front of the media in Zurich on Wednesday. The guests from Europe would be back. For the French, he expects an increase of 20 percent compared to 2020, for the Germans the increase is likely to be 15 percent.

For tourists from the Benelux countries and Great Britain, he expects an increase of 10 percent each, even if the pandemic prospects on the island darken again, said Nydegger.

“We are assuming that the travel restrictions will fall. And the French guests will not all get on the plane again right away,” said the Switzerland Tourism Director. Flying is still a pain. You have to have a lot of documents ready. These hurdles would still prevent many people from taking long-distance trips straight away. Switzerland benefits from this.

In the long-haul markets, the omens are good for the USA: “The first American guests should travel to Switzerland again this summer, we see an increase of 50 percent,” said Nydegger. Switzerland Tourism is assuming that the Federal Council will implement further easing.

“And after last year’s almost complete absence of the Arab guests, we are optimistic that we will be able to welcome some of them again in their high season, our Swiss summer,” said Nydegger. Also from Korea and Hong Kong, where travel restrictions will be relaxed on July 1st, the first guests should arrive again in autumn.

In contrast, it looks bleak for guests from the Far East and Oceania. “For mainland China, Japan or Australia, however, we unfortunately do not expect any easing of the entry regime for the time being,” said Nydegger.

Despite the upswing, there will be another 5 percent decline in overnight stays in 2021 as a whole compared to 2020. That was due to the bad winter, explained Nydegger. A total of 1.2 million overnight stays would be missing, mainly because the guests from overseas did not attend.

These tourists from distant countries also spend more on average than the Swiss guests. “This is practically a quarter of a billion francs in added value,” said Nydegger.

The feedback from the industry on the booking situation is different. For this summer, Seilbahnen Schweiz is once again assuming primarily local guests and has high hopes for appropriate framework conditions, said Nydegger.

Bookings in the additional hotel business are strong. The occupancy of holiday apartments and campsites is very high. In the high season months of July and August they are almost fully booked.

On the other hand, the hotels fear great losses due to the continued lack of foreign guests. The total occupancy rate in the Swiss hotel industry is likely to be only 48 percent between June and August, said Nydegger. That is significantly less than in the record year 2019, when 72 percent of hotel beds were full.

City hotels in particular are badly booked. In order to attract tourists, Switzerland Tourism has launched a general subscription for the summer, with which guests can travel around the whole country by public transport for a month.

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