"This has been done to meet the requirement of our growing number of tourists from the Middle East and Arab world," Jorg P. Krebs, Switzerland Tourism's director markets for Gulf, India, Russia, Nordic countries, the Czech Republic and Poland, told a press conference at the Jeddah Hilton.

The country has been receiving a great number of inquiries about education and health care facilities, aside of course from tourism. "It is against this background that Swiss Tourism now provides all information in Arabic," Krebs said, adding that the website already provides information in 30 other world languages.

Krebs added that the country's "comprehensive, elaborate and excellent" facilities for education and health care in particular have been attracting a large number of Saudis and expatriates from the Kingdom. Demand for Switzerland's language schools, high schools and universities is growing from this part of the world. Also, the GCC visitors favor our destinations because of the country's solid tourism infrastructure and facilities that suit the Muslim world, he said. "We have tailor-made facilities for Ramadan with chalets, holiday apartments and starred hotels," he said, adding that the country today boasts 45,000 holiday apartments and 3,500 starred hotels for tourists.

Krebs said the Swiss tourism industry was impacted by the world economic crisis, "but our loss has been only four percent, as travelers from the world over continue to visit us." The country with its population of 7.6 million attracted 18 million visitors last year. The tourism industry is its third biggest foreign exchange earner, accounting for six to eight percent of the GDP, he said. Some 103,000 Saudi and other Arab visitors toured Switzerland in 2009.

"We issued 3,500 visas from the Swiss Consulate General of Jeddah alone last year," Swiss Consul General Hans Stalder said. The country recently became a member of the Schengen group and like all of its member countries it takes at least eight working days to issue a visa. Schengen is an association of states in Europe that in theory adhere to the ideals of the Schengen Convention, notably the abolition of passport controls at common internal borders and the strengthening of external borders. The convention, which first came into effect in March 1995, was signed by Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands in 1985. Italy, Portugal, Spain, Greece, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Norway and some other countries became subsequent members.

While Saudi Arabian Airlines operate direct flights to Switzerland, Lufthansa and some other international carriers provide "excellent and convenient" connections to Swiss destinations. Swiss International Airlines services to and from the Kingdom were discontinued from Feb. 1. Both Lufthansa and Swiss are members of the Star Alliance.