The Swiss Hotel Association is seeing red. Overnight stays have dropped by 1.2% for the first half of the year to 16.8 million, according to latest figures from the Federal Statistical Office.
A 0.5% increase in overnights by Swiss guests (to 7.7 million) for the same period in 2015 has failed to make up for a 2.5% drop in those by foreign guests (9.1 million).
Visitors from the United States recorded the strongest absolute increase of 44,000 overnights (up 5.6%), but the problem for the tourism industry is the plummeting number of foreign regulars who stay in Swiss hotels in large groups.
German tourists alone spent 136,000 fewer nights in Switzerland (down 6.5%), with sizeable drops also recorded among the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). For example, there were 14.3% fewer overnights among guests from China, not including Hong Kong.
swissinfo.ch
The figures show that Swiss travelled less to places where terrorism was having a negative effect on the tourism industry, such as Tunisia. Instead, they were heading for European destinations, notably the Iberian Peninsula.
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