Domestic guests ease pain for Swiss hotels in August

Swiss hotels welcomed a sixth more domestic guests this August than last August Keystone

The gradual recovery of the Swiss hotel industry stalled in August, with hotel occupancy declining by 28.1% year-on-year to 3.2 million overnight stays.

However, the 15.6% increase in the number of overnight stays by domestic visitors mitigated the persistent desertion of guests from abroad (down 60.3%), the Federal Statistical Office said on Monday.

Over the first eight months of the year, the 16.5 million overnight stays reflected a 40.9% decline on the same period in 2019. Overall, rates for domestic guests were down 15.1% and international travellers down 61.7%.

After collapsing by 92.4% in April, 79.2% in May and 62% in June, the decline in overnight stays in Swiss hotels improved to “only” -26.4% in July.

Until the implementation in mid-March of the first containment measures to combat the spread of Covid-19, the hotel industry had reported growth of more than 6% over the first two months of the year.

The countries of origin for guests in August reveal the continuing obstacles to intercontinental travel. At fewer than 20,000, the number of overnight stays from US guests, second in the ranking a year earlier, is a 15^th of what is was. German residents remain in first place, declining by only 14.5% to 387,594 overnight stays.