The tourism industry will be affected in the coming weeks (after January 27th):
According to Swiss officials, the number of Chinese tourists visiting Switzerland could decrease by 30 to 50 percent in the coming weeks, which equals to about 70,000-100,000 overnight stays per month. This will most likely affect popular destinations such as Geneva, Zermatt, Interlaken, Lucerne and Zurich. Due to the coronavirus outbreak, the Chinese government decided to halt all group travels to foreign countries from January 27th on. Luckily, winter is no peak season for Chinese tourists visiting Switzerland.
Impact of the Coronavirus on the Swiss hotel industry:
Chinese tourists currently account for about 3.5 percent of hotel overnight demand in Switzerland. These figures may lead us to believe that this is not an alarming situation. However, it still is due to the nature of the Chinese tourism here: First, most of the Chinese tourists travel in groups, that means cancellations happen in bulks, which leads to substantial losses for affected hotels they can’t quickly compensate. Chinese tourist groups also focus on specific regions. Consequently, these regions will be hit hard. In addition, Chinese tourists have the second-highest purchasing power of any tourists in Switzerland and also tend to spend a lot of money on souvenirs such as expensive watches or other luxury items.
China’s ambassador not worried about Swiss tourism:
China’s ambassador to Switzerland, Geng Wenbing, does not believe the Swiss tourism will suffer heavily under the coronavirus. He said that the peak of the crisis has passed and if everything goes well, the situation will be under control by March. Then Chinese tourists would be able to visit Switzerland again during the summer months.
Read full article here (in German)
