Swiss hotels billed 38.3 million overnight stays in 2022, or 29.4% more than in 2021, the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) said on Thursday. The record of 39.6 million overnight stays reached in 2019, on the eve of the pandemic, is not far off.
The 2022 figures “delight us”, summed up Martin Nydegger, director of Switzerland Tourism, during the annual conference of the promotional body.
The year 2022 can be described as a “return to normal” in relation to the pandemic, despite the outbreak of war in Ukraine and inflation, added Marc Gindraux, head of the Territory and Environment Division of the Federal Office Statistics (FSO).
Record for indigenous overnight stays
Indigenous overnight stays set a new record at 21.1 million units, up 0.5%. The trend of Swiss residents spending their holidays in the country has continued, in the wake of the years 2020 and 2021 marked by the pandemic. Compared to 2019, the number of local overnight stays is indeed up by 17.5%.
“The Swiss probably wanted to continue to discover their country and deepen the trips they had the opportunity to make during the pandemic”, estimated the spokesperson for Switzerland Tourism in the 12:30 of the RTS. “But it is likely that this will not continue (…) with an increase compared to 2019”, underlined Véronique Kanel.
Guests from Europe have made a comeback and there is even a 2.8% increase compared to 2019 for French tourists. The deficit is still 3.4% for the Benelux hosts and 8% for the Germans.
The Chinese with absent subscribers
Other customers traditionally loyal to Switzerland, tourists from the United States, the Persian Gulf region and India are also back. The guests from the Far East, on the other hand, remained more discreet, in particular the Japanese but above all the Chinese, prevented from leaving their territory by the zero-Covid policy decreed by the Beijing regime.
The FSO observes a drop in the number of overnight stays of 35% for overseas guests. For the Chinese alone, the fall is 91%.
Geneva posts the strongest rebound
All the tourist regions show an increase in the number of overnight stays with the notable exception of Ticino. In the canton of Geneva, this figure jumped to 94.5%. Zurich follows closely, with an increase of 89.0%.
The room occupancy rate stood at 51.6% last year in Switzerland, 10.2 points more than in 2021. Geneva also has the highest rate in Switzerland, at 56.7 %, or 22.4 points more than the previous year.
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