Race to catch up thanks to good weather Vacation resorts are on course for records after a rainy start

The rainy May and June are already history for many tourism businesses. Campsites are fully booked in many places and the hotel industry is also experiencing an upswing. Foreign guests are making a decisive contribution to this boom.

As "Blick" reports, the Rausenbach campsite on Lake Greifensee in Maur ZH has been very busy for weeks. "We were able to make up a large part of the losses from the start of the summer," explains Ralf Steinmann, who runs the campsite together with his partner. Only 200 overnight stays are still missing to reach last year's level.

In May and June, Swiss campsites suffered greatly from the persistent rainfall. The 25 TCS campsites alone recorded an 8% drop in overnight stays in the first half of 2023.

Parahotel industry records strong turnover

Since then, however, campsites throughout Switzerland have been almost fully booked. Within a month, the Touring Club Switzerland was able to reduce the deficit to 4.8 percent, and there is hope that the shortfall will be turned into a plus by the end of the summer.

A catch-up process is also underway in other areas of tourism, such as shipping, excursion destinations and mountain railroads, as a survey by "Blick" shows. The Arosa mountain railroads recorded peak figures in the last two weeks. "The real figures are only calculated at the end of the summer season," emphasizes Managing Director Philipp Holenstein.

TourismOnly a few Swiss resorts affected by overtourism

The so-called para-hotel industry is also recording strong sales. The Reka vacation villages have increased their income compared to the previous year, and bookings for late summer and fall also look promising.

The Swiss Youth Hostels were able to maintain their level in the first half of the year, and Interhome again recorded growth in the rental of vacation apartments compared to the strong previous year. The increased demand for personal advice is particularly noticeable this year.

Advertising campaigns abroad are having an effect

Foreign guests are also filling the beds in Swiss hotels. Thanks to them, many tourism businesses are once again on course for record overnight stays.

The advertising campaigns abroad are having an effect, as the example of the Lenkerhof in Lenk BE shows. The 5-star superior hotel has expanded its international presence. "We actually expected that the effect would only be noticeable in two or three years' time," Co-Director Jan Andreas Stiller explains to Blick.

"But we have already been able to attract more international guests this summer," he adds. The number of guests from Asia, America and England has increased in particular.

"At the same time, we were able to maintain the level of our Swiss guests," the co-hotel director is pleased to report. The proportion of foreign guests rose to 20 percent, meaning that the hotel even exceeded its own expectations in summer business.

Increasing demand from American guests

This development has a considerable advantage for the hotel: "Swiss guests book at much shorter notice or sometimes not at all if the weather is not right. Foreign guests book earlier, stay longer and are generally less dependent on the weather," explains Stiller.

Ferry Wey, Director of the three Lucerne hotels Schüssel, Beau Séjour and Villa Maria, is also very satisfied with the summer business. Although the primary target group of his establishments are Swiss nationals, he is seeing increasing demand from American guests. These are compensating for the continued hesitant booking behavior of guests from Asia.

Swiss tourism businesses could break records

For the first time since the coronavirus pandemic, the number of overnight stays by foreign guests has once again exceeded the number of domestic guests. In the first half of the year, they rose by around 5 percent to 10.1 million overnight stays.

Despite a slight decline, Swiss guests remain an important factor for the industry with around 10 million overnight stays. If the summer weather conditions continue, Swiss tourism businesses could break several records again.