Swiss tourism authorities reported positive numbers despite strong franc. Due to the weaker euro to the franc, Swiss holiday for guests from the eurozone got 50 percent more expensive over the last ten years.
During the last three years, the travel and hospitality industry in Switzerland recorded an increase in overnight stays of 8.7 percent. In 2018 alone, the number of overnight stays climbed by 3.8 percent to 38.8 million. It has never happened before and was not even reached in 2008 before the financial crisis!
While the number of overnight stays of domestic guests has risen by 8.1 percent in the last three years, there has been a 9.2 percent increase in the number of foreign tourists. Foreign guests represent over 55 percent of all tourists in the country.
The gross value added of Swiss tourism demonstrates even more remarkable growth during the period. Between 2015 and 2017 alone, it climbed by 13.1 percent to 18.7 billion Swiss francs.
Most of the guests come from Germany, followed by the USA, but Asia is catching up significantly. Last year, 6.5 percent more Chinese stayed in Switzerland than in 2017. The number of visitors from India climbed by 9.1 percent and more than ten percent more guests visited the country from the Southeast Asian countries - Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore – compared to the previous year.
In the fight for national and especially international guests, the Swiss tourism industry is creative and supports trends such as for example cycling. After all, that was an important topic in the summer of 2018 and Switzerland is now one of the most popular destinations for mountain bikers worldwide. Such initiatives make Switzerland more and more popular as a summer destination, not so much dependant on the winter tourism season.
Due to plenty of snow and good weather, the number of overnight stays increased by 0.6 percent last winter, according to a study by the Swiss Federal Institute of Economic Research (KOF).
For the summer season, the researchers of the KOF even expect an increase in overnight stays by 2.1 percent and forecast a 1.5 percent increase for the year 2019. But the tourism experts at ETH Zurich are also confident for the next few years. According to the experts, in the next year and in 2021, the number of overnight stays should increase further, by two percent.