Swiss hotels are celebrating a successful summer season for tourism in Switzerland. Despite the weather, hotels saw more foreign tourists booking trips to the alpine nation compared to 2020, particularly in Swiss cities.
In the summer months of 2021, data from the Federal Statistical Office showed that over 10 million hotel guests stayed in Switzerland. The new figures are 28 percent higher than for the same period in 2020, but still below the peak seen in 2019, before the COVID pandemic.
Cities were the biggest winners, with hotels in Geneva and Zurich seeing twice as many bookings as the same time a year earlier. Destinations near mountains and historical sites, such as Arosa and Appenzell, did not see as many bookings as last year, possibly due to the wet and cold weather that gripped Switzerland for most of the summer.
People with residency in Switzerland made up the highest proportion of tourists, followed by Germany, France and the Netherlands. Swissinfo reported that many Swiss destinations like Canton Ticino are benefiting from travel restrictions, as Swiss travellers are forced to look domestically to their own stunning lakes and mountains.
Despite overnight stays at the start of summer being below 40 percent of what they were before the pandemic, the figure has steadily declined to just 8 percent fewer in August and is predicted to narrow by the end of the year. It is hoped that, provided with a good winter season and as travel corridors open up, more international tourists will start to arrive in greater numbers.