Swiss hotels on record course again after first quarter
Published: Monday, May 6th 2024, 13:21
Updated At: Monday, May 6th 2024, 13:22
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The Swiss hotel industry is also doing well this year. After a record year in 2023, the industry is already back on course for new highs after the first quarter. The return of Chinese guests is also partly responsible for this.
In the first quarter, the total number of overnight stays rose by 3.3% to 9.8 million, as reported by the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) on Monday. The upward trend has accelerated from month to month since the beginning of the year: overnight stays increased by 2.2 percent in January, 3.8 percent in February and 3.9 percent in March.
Chinese guests return
Guests from abroad were the main driving force behind the increase. With an increase of 6.7 percent to 4.6 million, they were once again responsible for almost half of all overnight stays in the current year. The most important group of guests continued to come from Germany with just under 1 million hotel nights booked.
The return of travelers from China is striking in the first quarter. The number of overnight stays almost tripled year-on-year to 110,000. However, in 2019 before the coronavirus pandemic, around twice as many overnight stays were booked from China.
There was also above-average growth among guests from the United States, with an increase of a good 10 percent to 0.5 million. They thus defended second place among the most important foreign guests. The figure in the first quarter also exceeded the 2019 level by almost 30%.
Positive trend among Swiss guests
The desire for vacations in Switzerland also remains unbroken among Swiss guests. With 5.3 million overnight stays and an increase of 0.3 percent, they continued to make up the majority of all guests. The trend has thus been steadily upwards since the slump in 2020 as a result of the coronavirus restrictions.
Overall, the Swiss hotel industry was able to seamlessly build on the previous year's record number of guests, when the 40 million mark was exceeded for the first time with 41.8 million overnight stays. If the positive trends from the first quarter are confirmed and the summer season is as good as the winter of 2023/24, then nothing stands in the way of another record number of overnight stays in 2024.
UBS expects growth
In a study published on Monday, UBS also expects more overnight stays in the upcoming summer season. The experts anticipate an increase of 1.5 percent. As in the winter, the catch-up effect among Asian tourists and the increase in US guests are likely to have a positive impact.
Further impetus from Germany or the European continent is not expected, however. Stagnation or even a slight decline is forecast here. This will primarily affect tourism regions such as Eastern Switzerland and Graubünden, while the cities of Zurich, Basel, Geneva and Bern still have some catching up to do.
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