Swiss Hotel Market Lacks Asian Visitors

Last year, Switzerland recorded 38 million hotel overnight stays. Most of them were accounted for by Swiss domestic travelers, which provided another record result. Only in the “pre-Corona years” of 2018 and 2019 there were more overnight stays registered.

2022 Was a Return to Normality

The fact that the result turned out so well for the hotel market has mainly to do with the continued strength of the domestic market: The Swiss accounted for 21 million overnight stays. That is 0.5% more than in the record previous year and a plus of 17.5% compared to the last pre-pandemic year 2019.

However, the share of Swiss visitors is likely to decline again somewhat in the medium term, as they are more traveling abroad again.

French Travelers Are Back

There were also more visitors from France (+2.8%), while Germany (-7.8%), Italy or the Benelux countries (-3.4%) are still slightly below the pre-pandemic levels. Demand remains weak from the United Kingdom (-16.8%) as well.

The numbers of travelers from Southeast Asia (-3.2%), the Gulf States (-5%) and North America (-8.1%) also approached normal levels again in 2022.

Due to the almost complete absence of guests from China, Japan, and India, there is still a minus of 35.1% for the long-haul markets compared to 2019.

The Return of the Asians

However, Martin Nydegger, director of Switzerland Tourism, explains, “We could see the return of guests from Europe in 2022, and there will be a return of Asian markets in 2023.”

Whether Chinese guests will return in the same volumes, however, is questionable. Experts do not expect that to be the case immediately. What’s also not so important is that fewer groups and more individual travelers will be received from China in the future.