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This year, there will hardly be any foreign tourists on the local ski slopes. Due to the corona pandemic, they are subject to strict entry and exit rules. That scares many. And that also has consequences for Switzerland. With failure, the country will lose billions in sales.
BLICK calculates: The value added in the winter season in Switzerland amounted to about 15 billion francs in previous years. This is based on an estimate from Switzerland Tourism based on data from the Federal Statistical Office in collaboration with the Center for Economic Research (KOF).
Top German tourists
By far the most important European winter guests for Switzerland are Germans. They constitute 13 percent of the seasonal value added. This is followed by five percent of the Benelux countries, that is, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Another 2.6 per cent of guests are from the UK and 2.3 per cent are from France.
In total, about 3.3 billion Swiss francs of the total appreciation in the winter season is at its limit. Money that Swiss hoteliers, restaurateurs and holiday home providers will lack this year.
The added value is an estimate of the amount of money generated by tourism, based on the number of overnight stays. That includes expenses like food, tickets, grocery shopping, and other expenses. The estimate is based on the assumption that all tourists, whether from Switzerland or other European countries, spend roughly the same amount of money per day on vacation.
The Swiss cannot absorb losses
“We hope that the Swiss will travel even further to the mountains and absorb this loss,” a Switzerland Tourism spokesperson tells BLICK. “However, the reservation levels for the Christmas holidays in the mountains are less than 19 percent compared to the previous year.”
In fact, the Swiss make up almost 70 percent of winter tourists in Switzerland. The majority of winter tourists, whether national or foreign, usually travel to the mountains, according to the Swiss Tourism spokesperson. Half of the guests want to ski. Hikers follow with 30 percent. The rest want to go sledding, snowboarding and cross-country skiing.
Due to the Crown crisis, many European tourists find it difficult to travel to Switzerland. Although some even own houses here. In Germany, returnees must undergo a 10-day quarantine. In France, in addition to quarantine, there is also the risk of corona tests at the border. The British must also submit to the obligation to self-quarantine after their stay in Switzerland.
