Tourism industry looks forward to better times
The Swiss tourism sector looks set to grow this year after foreign visitors, especially from Japan and China, returned in bigger numbers in 2004.
Switzerland Tourism, the national tourist board, is hoping to build on last year’s upswing and expects to attract even more visitors from abroad.
Although the number of foreign tourists was up, the number of overnight stays remained virtually unchanged in 2004 – down 0.3 per cent – with fewer Swiss holidaying at home.
But this constituted a stop in the slide registered in 2003, when numbers decreased by 2.7 per cent.
“Last year was a transition year,” said Michel Ferla, vice-director of Switzerland Tourism. “We expect overnight stays to increase in 2005 and 2006.”
The board estimates turnover in the tourism sector grew by up to two per cent last year.
The domestic market lost ground again in 2004, with the number of Swiss tourists making overnight stays dropping 2.8 per cent. This decrease was blamed on bad weather conditions.
“After a strong year for domestic sales with beautiful weather, we couldn’t reasonably expect the numbers to be the same in 2004,” said Jürg Schmid, head of Switzerland Tourism.
Foreign guests
But this was compensated by the arrival of foreign visitors, whose numbers rose by 1.7 per cent.
“Compared with countries such as France, Italy, Austria or Spain, where visitor numbers have dropped, we have done better,” Schmid told swissinfo.
“These nations are feeling the competition from cheap destinations such as Turkey now, something we experienced years ago.”
Stays by Chinese nationals doubled, while they were up by a quarter for the Japanese. The mass arrival of groups of Chinese as well as Korean tourists mostly benefited central Switzerland and the country’s cities.
Urban centres also attracted visitors from home and neighbouring countries, particularly thanks to cultural events. Basel saw overnight stays increase by a fifth thanks to the successful Tutankhamen exhibition.
Switzerland Tourism says that the markets of the future are China, Korea, the United States and the Gulf states, and will be hoping over the next few months to convince tour operators and travel agents from these countries Switzerland is the place to be.
Online advertising
To attract visitors from Europe, who rarely book holidays via agencies, the board is placing advertisements in magazines to draw attention to its internet site.
“Switzerland Tourism is banking on the development of its online presence to boost the number of visitors,” said Eva Brechtbühl, who oversees the website.
An online evaluation system of Swiss hotels by guests has been set up as part of this project. Internet users will be able to consult the results to help decide where they want to stay.
The system is in English, French and German. It will probably be extended to all the tourism industry’s activities.
swissinfo with agencies
The Swiss tourism industry generates revenues of more than SFr22 billion ($18.7 billion) annually.
It is the third-largest export sector behind the engineering and chemical industries.
More than 165,000 people work in tourism – 5.2 per cent of all employed people in the country.
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