Swiss tourism can look forward to good winter business. The number of overnight stays in the 2023/24 winter season will rise by 1.6% to 17.7 million, according to a forecast by the KOF Swiss Economic Institute.
As in the previous winter, this would be well above the pre-Covid level.
The expected growth compared to the previous season is primarily based on the hope that March 2024 will not be as snow-poor as last year, the KOF announced on Thursday. More European guests are expected again, particularly from Germany, the most important country of origin.
Last winter they were increasingly reluctant to visit due to the gloomy consumer sentiment. According to the forecasts, European guests are likely to return to pre-pandemic levels.
Chinese guests are also expected to have a positive effect. These remain well below the pre-Covid level. However, based on the very low comparative basis from the previous season, an increase is nevertheless expected.
Positive impetus is also expected from other Asian markets. In particular, guests from the US are also likely to show strong growth rates in the winter season, as was the case in the summer.
Meanwhile, a slight decline is forecast for Swiss guests following the high figures in the previous year. After the pandemic, the Swiss are increasingly travelling abroad again. In a historical comparison, however, the level of Swiss guests remains very high, as it was in the pandemic years.
All in all, Swiss tourism is expected to reach 106% of the level of the last pre-pandemic winter of 2018/19 in terms of overnight stays. At 104%, this was already exceeded last year for the first time since the outbreak of the pandemic.
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. You can find them here.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
External Content
Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Almost finished… We need to confirm your email address. To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you.
Popular Stories
More
Multinational companies
Azeri fossil-fuel cash cow brings controversy to Switzerland
Heavy snowfall in Switzerland causes traffic chaos and accidents
This content was published on
The heavy snowfall late on Thursday and during the night into Friday led to traffic chaos and many accidents in many regions of Switzerland.
Chimpanzee behaviours passed down through generations
This content was published on
Some of the complex behaviours of chimpanzees have been passed down and refined over generations. These include the combination of several tools for foraging.
More than 600,000 rounds of Swiss sniper ammunition reach Ukraine
This content was published on
Sniper ammunition from Swiss P Defence reached Ukraine via a Polish company in July 2023, reported SRF Investigativ on Thursday, citing official information.
Environment minister outlines Swiss efforts to limit global warming
This content was published on
Switzerland will do its part to achieve the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celcius, said Environment Minister Albert Rösti, who's attending COP29 in Baku.
This content was published on
Switzerland remains by a large margin the European champion of train travel, both in terms of the number of journeys per person and the number of kilometres travelled. Switzerland remains by a large margin the European champion of train travel, both in terms of the number of journeys per person and the number of kilometres travelled. Switzerland remains by a large margin the European champion of train travel, both in terms of the number of journeys per person and the number of kilometres travelled.
Assisted suicide: Sarco inventor defends himself against killing rumours
This content was published on
Sarco inventor Philip Nitschke has defended himself against rumours that one of his colleagues assisted in the suicide of a woman in Schaffhausen, northern Switzerland.
Too much attention paid to queer people, says Swiss survey
This content was published on
Most Swiss are well disposed towards LGBTQ people, according to a study. However, prejudice and intolerance persist in certain sectors of society, particularly towards transgender and intersex people.
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.