Tourism Swiss hotel industry still on record course after seven months
The Swiss hotel industry recorded slightly more overnight stays in July than in the previous year. This means that momentum has slowed somewhat.
05.09.2024, 09:09
05.09.2024, 10:38
SDA
From January to June, growth was significantly stronger. Nevertheless, the number of overnight stays after seven months is higher than ever before.
Specifically, the number of overnight stays rose by 0.3 percent to 4.8 million in July, as reported by the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) on Thursday. The increase is once again due to foreign guests. Here, overnight stays increased by 3.1 percent to 2.6 million.
As in the previous months following the pandemic, however, the Swiss were once again increasingly drawn abroad. At 2.2 million, the number of overnight stays by domestic guests in July was 2.8% down on the same month last year.
More overnight stays than ever before
This means that the positive momentum in the Swiss hotel industry weakened significantly in July. In the first half of the year, there was still an increase of 2.4 percent compared to the same period last year.
Nevertheless, the hotel industry recorded 2.0% 24.8 million 2.0% more overnight stays from January to July than in the same period of the previous year, more than ever before in the first seven months of a year.
Of these, 12.7 million overnight stays were attributable to foreign guests, which corresponds to an increase of 4.7%. In contrast, the number of overnight stays by guests from Switzerland fell by 0.6% to 12.2 million.
US guests at record level
This once again confirms the trend that has been emerging since the end of the coronavirus pandemic: More foreign visitors are coming to Switzerland again. Conversely, Swiss nationals are increasingly traveling abroad again.
Nevertheless, there are still fewer foreign visitors to Switzerland than in the last pre-coronavirus year of 2019, with significantly fewer tourists coming from China in particular. But there are also still fewer visitors from India and some European countries than before coronavirus - including from Germany, which remains the most important market of origin.
In contrast, the positive trend among guests from the USA remains unbroken. So far this year, more US guests have come than ever before. However, they are not quite able to compensate for the decline in other countries of origin compared to 2019. From January to July, there were still 1.2% fewer guests from abroad than last year before coronavirus.
The fact that the industry is still at a record level is therefore not least due to the fact that the Swiss are still spending significantly more vacations in Switzerland than before the pandemic. Despite the downward trend, Swiss guests have still accounted for a good 15 percent more overnight stays so far this year than in 2019.
Record number of overnight stays remains in sight
The Swiss hotel industry therefore still has its sights firmly set on last year's record number of overnight stays. In 2023, the 40 million mark was exceeded for the first time with 41.8 million overnight stays.
However, whether the record will actually be broken also depends on whether the historically strong tourism fall of the previous year can be surpassed. The important start to the winter season and Christmas business will also be decisive for the industry.
