Tourism in Switzerland has had a fantastic summer. While the Swiss were increasingly drawn abroad again, numerous nations discovered Switzerland as a travel destination.
The Swiss hotel industry has experienced an excellent summer month over August. The times of the coronavirus pandemic seem to have been forgotten. And the number of overnight stays increased by 7.6 percent to 4.5 million compared to the same month last year.
This was announced by the Federal Statistical Office FSO on the basis of preliminary figures.
Desire for distant places
However, the number of overnight stays by domestic guests fell by 13.5 percent to 2.2 million. Apparently, after years of pandemic, the Swiss once again have preferred to spend their vacations abroad.
And foreigners have rediscovered Switzerland as a tourist destination. The number of overnight stays by foreign guests increased by a high 42 percent to 2.3 million in August.
More than doubling
From January to August the hotel industry in Switzerland recorded a total of 25.9 million overnight stays, which represents an increase of 34.2 percent compared to the same period last year. Domestic guests still generated an increase of 1.2 percent to 14.6 million overnight stays.
However, around 11.3 million overnight stays were accounted for by foreign guests, which corresponds to an increase of no less than 131 percent.
Germans above all
But which nations are coming back to Switzerland this summer? The largest group of vacationers came from Germany, with around 480,000 overnight stays in August. This is roughly the same level as last year and it’s a record since August 2014.
The second group of vacationers arrived from the U.S.A., according to the FSO. They stayed in Switzerland with about 300,000 overnight stays – an extreme increase from these guests when compared to the 2021 figures of 115,000.
Americans have also now surpassed the pre-Corona levels from August of 2019.
Top figures for two countries
The French also now like to head off to Switzerland. They have generated around 200,000 overnight stays, which was an all-time high. The British spent the night in fourth place in the rankings with around 150,000 overnight stays.
The Dutch and Italians also discovered Switzerland as a travel destination in August. They accounted for about 120,000 overnight stays each. These were also top figures when looking at the recent past.
Hot summer at home
And also the Arabs found, due to the heat in their homelands, again their way into the country of many luxury hotels and stayed overnight again at pre-Corona levels. Thus, people from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates each accounted for almost 80,000 overnight stays.
08.10.2022/kut./ena.
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