Tourist industry makes the best of a bad season

Foreigners are still travelling to Lucerne to see the world famous Chapel Bridge swissinfo.ch

The tourist industry has been hit hard by the September 11 attacks in the United States, but not everyone is staying away.

A stroll through the medieval streets of Lucerne on an autumn day proves there is no better time to visit Switzerland.

A middle-aged couple from Canada stop and watch workers fashioning cobblestones into shape before hammering them into place on Rathausquai, just below Lucerne’s famous Chapel Bridge.

Don and Marion Gibson are halfway through a month long tour of Europe. They are refusing to be deterred from travelling by the tragic events of September 11.

“I said to myself, there’s probably never going to be a safer time to travel because of the extra security,” says Don. “[Our group] is only half of what it should be. So there’s lots of extra room on the bus if someone wants to pick up the tour here,” he laughs.

They move on to one of Lucerne’s best-known landmarks; the covered bridge, built in the 14th century.

Cloudy winter forecast

The number of overnight stays in Switzerland is down about 10 per cent compared with the same period last year, and the Swiss Hotel Association is predicting a 15 per cent fall in visitors during the important winter season.

Lucerne would seem particularly vulnerable, because it relies primarily on visitors from overseas. American and Asian tourists make up half of all visitors to the city.

But according to the director of Lucerne Tourism, Mario Lütolf, the city’s hoteliers and shop owners are taking the downturn in their stride.

“Because Lucerne is a brand name and well-known place for European tours, there are still people coming here from all over the world, but numbers have fallen.”

New campaign

The national marketing body, Switzerland Tourism, has responded to the fall in overseas visitors by planning a new campaign to promote Switzerland among the Swiss and in neighbouring countries.

Lütolf says his office intends to do the same. “We’re going to promote upcoming festivals – blues festivals, a fashion festival (see link), even Christmas activities – and do more to promote Lucerne’s carnival in February.”

The president of the Swiss Hotel Association, Christian Rey, supports the strategy and says the events of September 11 and the grounding of Swissair could have positive side effects.

He says the reluctance of travellers to take overseas flights could mean that Swiss ski resorts will become a lot more attractive to Europeans, who in normal circumstances, may have chosen a beach holiday in the Caribbean this winter.

“The world has become a village,” Rey says. “People cross the world as if it was a village. But that may change, as far as consumer habits are concerned.”

In the longer term, Lütolf says Lucerne will not change its marketing strategy, and will continue to concentrate its efforts on attracting visitors from Asia and the United States.

“The most important thing is that we have decided to stay in the markets where we are already represented, that means Asia and America,” he says. “We’ve put a lot of work into marketing Lucerne in these regions in the past.”

Tourists still buying

Managers of some of Lucerne’s luxury goods and souvenir shops are reluctant to talk about the effect the events have had on sales, but the shops are far from empty and the Americans and Asians walking the aisles are still buying.

At one location, two American women from Wisconsin fill their basket with lace doilies, beer mugs, and music boxes.

Unlike the Canadians, they said no one in their group had cancelled. “I feel safer here than at home,” says the one woman. “That’s the feeling of the whole group. We haven’t been worried at all. We’ve travelled all through Europe, and had a very nice time.”

by Dale Bechtel