Tourism Mountain railroads have a slow start to the summer due to bad weather

Swiss mountain railroads transported significantly fewer guests at the start of the summer season. The reason for this was the bad weather in June with heavy rainfall and storms in some places, the Swiss Cableways Association announced on Thursday.

After two months, the summer season, which runs from May to October, is down 9 percent on the previous year. The start of the season was still "pleasing", according to the communiqué. In particular, the long weekends over Ascension Day and Whitsun brought the mountain railroads more guests in May than in previous years.

However, June was then characterized by cool temperatures as well as heavy rainfall and storms in the southern mountain regions. According to the industry association, the generally poor weather in June deterred many guests from Switzerland and neighboring countries from taking day trips. And tourists from distant markets had to start their already booked excursions in gloomy conditions.

Peak phase is yet to come

However, there were major regional differences. The mountain railroads in Graubünden and Eastern Switzerland were hit particularly hard in May and June, with guest numbers falling by more than a quarter compared to the previous year. Valais also recorded a drop of 10 percent.

The declines were comparatively moderate in Ticino (-1%), the Bernese Oberland (-5%) and Central Switzerland (-7%). In May and June, only the mountain railroads in the Vaud Alps recorded an increase of 5%.

However, the peak season in summer is still ahead of the industry with the vacation months of July and August. "We are convinced that day trips to the Swiss mountains will increase again during the vacation season when conditions are good," Berno Stoffel, Director of Cableways Switzerland, is quoted as saying in the press release. At the same time, however, the bar is "very high" with the strong early summer.