Does the tourism industry need to rethink? KOF expects fewer guests in winter than in summer

After a pleasing summer, the tourism industry in Switzerland can also look forward to a comparatively good winter season. However, the KOF Swiss Economic Institute expects slightly fewer guests than in the summer.

According to a press release issued on Monday, the past 2024 summer season set new records. According to KOF figures, the increase amounted to 408,000 overnight stays more than in the 2023 summer season, an increase of 1.7 percent. The record season was mainly due to strong demand from the USA and stable guest numbers from Switzerland.

KOF expects a good winter

"These trends are likely to continue in winter," it says, looking ahead. For the 2024/2025 winter season, the KOF expects overnight stays to grow by 0.8 percent. In summer, however, the experts were still forecasting growth of 1 percent.

Demand is likely to be driven by guests from Europe. The KOF is forecasting growth of 2 percent here. While the number of overnight stays by German guests is likely to stagnate due to "economic challenges", stable growth can still be expected for French guests, for example.

According to the KOF, guests from North America in particular are likely to be increasingly attracted to Switzerland during the winter season. Here, overnight stays are expected to grow by almost 10 percent.

Cautious outlook

For the 2025 summer season, however, the KOF expects stagnation at the previous year's level. Specifically, a slight increase in overnight stays of 0.2% is expected.

In its forecast, the KOF assumes that Swiss guests will continue to spend a lot of their vacations in their own country next summer. However, if the local population increasingly moves abroad again, "the number of overnight stays may not grow next summer", according to the KOF experts.

SDA