Survey: how the pandemic changed Swiss leisure activities

The pandemic led to a boom in creative leisure activities such as pottery or photography. Keystone-SDA

Fewer Swiss residents went to museums, exhibitions or cinemas last year compared to 2019. But there has been a rise in hobbies and creative activities, especially among 15-29 year-olds, according to a national survey.

+Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox

The Federal Statistical Office’s (FSO) 2024 survey on language, religion and culture shows a decline in cultural outings compared to 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic. Visits to museums, exhibitions, dance events, concerts and cinemas were down by 6-7 percentage points.

Major urban events such as Zurich’s Street Parade and smaller village events have followed the same trend, particularly among young people; nightclubs are also less popular. Festivals are the exception, continuing an upward trend.

By contrast, amateur creative activities are booming, such as photography, drawing, pottery and dance lessons, especially among the 15-29 age group.

There has also been an increase in online and digital usage, such as video on demand, music streaming and e-books, although cinema and paper books remain very much in evidence, the report says.

Translated from French by DeepL/sb

How we work

We select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools to translate them into English. A journalist then reviews the translation for clarity and accuracy before publication.  

Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. The news stories we select have been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team from news agencies such as Bloomberg or Keystone.

If you have any questions about how we work, write to us at [e-mail]