Tourism on the increase: Ticino and Grisons set records

The Swiss hotel sector has confirmed its recovery in August, although overnight stays were still below pre-Covid levels, as some regions continue to suffer from the absence of overseas guests. Ticino and Graubünden, on the other hand, show record numbers, having been able to take full advantage of the many Swiss who spent their vacations domestically.

According to data released today by the Federal Statistical Office (FSO), 4.16 million nights were recorded nationwide in August: the figure is 27% higher than that of the same month in 2020, but is still significantly lower than the 4.51 million recorded in the eighth month of 2019. Weighing in once again was the absence of many foreign visitors: 62% of the clientele was in fact local.

The regional analysis shows significant discrepancies, dictated, however, by the fact that some areas - specifically: urban areas - had seen virtually zero activity in 2020. In August, strong progress was observed in Geneva (+108%), Zurich (+83%) and Basel (+54%), but the numbers are still low in a multi-year comparison.

The most moderate increase is in Graubünden (+15%), which reached a number of nights (718’000) not reached since 2005, the year from which the FSO provides the data. By comparison, August 2019 had marked 606,000 nights and to find a value higher than 700,000 you have to go back to 2008.

A similar argument also applies to Ticino, which confirms that it has been favored by the changes in travel habits dictated by the pandemic: the nights recorded were 427,000, not only 24% more than the same period last year, but also a clear increase compared to the 324,000 of 2019. The last time the figure 4 was seen in front of the number was in 2006 (412,000). The Italian-speaking canton is also among the regions with the highest proportion of Swiss guests at 75%. In the Rhaetian valleys the similar figure is 70%.

Considering the first seven months of 2021, there were 19.18 million overnight stays in Switzerland, a year-on-year increase of 15% and a share of native guests of 75%. Graubünden is up 5% to 3.63 million and Ticino is up 74% to 2.07 million. The only region that is in decline is Geneva (-2%): however, Zurich (+2%) and Valais (+4%) were also affected, given that the comparison is made with the first year of the pandemic.

Foreign tourists are back

The upturn in Swiss tourism in August can also be attributed to a return of foreign guests: of the 4.2 million overnight stays recorded, 1.6 million were generated by guests from across the border, a number that increased by 56% compared to the same month in 2020.

For Swiss guests, the increase is in fact more limited, +14% to 2.5 million, emerges from the data published today by the Federal Statistical Office (FSO).

The largest group of guests from abroad came from Germany, followed by France and the Netherlands. The number of visitors coming from distant nations such as the United States and the United Arab Emirates also rose significantly over the previous year. In contrast, the level of travelers arriving from Asia remained low.

Calculated over the first eight months of the year, there were 19.2 million nights (+15%), of which 4.9 million were accounted for by foreigners (-17%) and 14.3 million generated by native guests (+32%).