Winter resorts cash in on snowfall
Business has picked up in Switzerland's winter resorts, with many reporting operations at full or near-full capacity over the Christmas and New Year holidays.
Resort managers say better snow conditions and an improved economy have contributed to bringing tourists back on the slopes.
Good weather and white ski runs meant that villages in the Bernese Oberland were looking at much better results for the latest Christmas break compared with the same period a year ago.
Resorts including Grindelwald, Gstaad, Wengen and Adelboden say they were nearly all booked out. In Gstaad, overnight stays were up ten per cent, while there were a quarter more skiers tackling the slopes.
According to Roland Seifritz, the head of the Bernese Oberland tourism office, good snow alone doesn’t explain the improved results.
He believes a more positive economic outlook has also convinced people to spend their money on winter recreation.
Many resort guests decided to book their Christmas holidays in November, after snowfalls had guaranteed better skiing conditions.
Smiling faces
In canton Valais, resort managers had smiles on their faces too. In Zermatt, nearly all the beds in the village’s hotels and holiday residences were filled up, with the only complaint being the bitterly cold weather over Christmas.
“Anyone who wanted to rent something could find a taker,” said Daniel Luggen of Zermatt’s tourism office.
In Verbier and other nearby resorts, some visitors held off until after Christmas before turning up. But after that, village accommodation was usually 95 per cent occupied, an improvement over the previous year’s results.
In Villars-sur-Ollon, in neighbouring canton Vaud, the winter season has experienced its best start for the past decade, according to the director of the local tourism office, Serge Beslin.
In canton Graubünden, southeastern Switzerland, tourists also preferred to arrive after Christmas. There were fewer visitors before Christmas than in 2004 but this shortfall was compensated in the week that followed.
Cable car operators in the canton said that too much snow and not enough sunshine had prevented them from recording optimal results over the Christmas period.
The Graubünden tourism office warned that it now expects figures to drop off in January before picking up again, as they traditionally do. Bookings for later in the month and February are already going strong.
swissinfo with agencies
There are 650 companies affiliated with the Swiss cable car operators association, running 2,400 lifts.
They carry around 310 million people per year and provide the equivalent of 4,700 fulltime jobs.
Revenue is approximately SFr800 million ($608 million).
They register more than 80 per cent of their business in winter.
During the winter season, Swiss resorts provide 12,000 kilometres of ski runs, 300 luge runs and 200 walking paths.
Switzerland’s tourism sector earned SFr22.6 billion in 2004 and provided 250,000 jobs.
More than half the industry’s revenue comes from foreign tourists, and it is the country’s third biggest export sector (7%), behind the chemicals and machinery construction.
No less than 62% of hotel accommodation is to be found in alpine zones, and over a third in resorts.
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here. Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.