JEDDAH: While the number of guest nights sold to tourists in Switzerland declined during the month of July, there has been a noticeable increase in the purchase of stays by GCC tourists, which softens the blow to tourism in the country.
According to figures from the Swiss Tourism Board, purchases of guest stays at tourism and hotel accommodation in Switzerland declined by 23 percent among Chinese tourists, by 11.5 percent among Japanese tourists, by 14.8 percent among Russian tourists and by 3.6 percent among German tourists.
However, bookings by Gulf tourists increased by 15.6 percent, the fourth highest rate for countries and regions that do not belong to the European continent.
Overall, hotels in Switzerland recorded 4.1 million hotel night stays in July 2016, a decline of 0.4 percent, or 18,000 hotel night stays, compared to July 2015.
Foreign visitors spent 2.3 million nights at hotels, a decline of 2 percent, or 46,000 hotel nights.
Swiss citizens purchased 1.8 million hotel night stays, an increase of 1.6 percent, or 29,000 hotel night stays.
The cumulative number of nights purchased at hotels between January and July of this year amounted to 20.9 million nights, down 1 percent from the same period in 2015.
Of the total, 11.4 million hotel nights were booked by foreign tourists, a 2.4 percent demand by foreign tourists, while bookings by residents of the country, around 9.5 million nights, increased by 0.7 percent.
During the month of July, 68,389 tourists arrived from the Gulf, 25,329 more than during the same month last year, marking a 7.1 percent increase. Gulf tourists represented the fifth highest figure among countries of the world, after Germans (170,744), Americans (124,055), Chinese excluding Hong Kong (128,347) and Britons (78,760).
The number of tourists from the Gulf exceeded that of tourists from Switzerland’s neighboring or close countries with strong economies and high population densities, such as France, Belgium, Holland, Italy and Spain, as well as from countries with large populations like Japan, India, South Korea and Russia.
As for the number of hotel nights booked in Switzerland by tourists from around world, Gulf tourists came in third place, with 188,147 hotel night bookings, up 15.6 percent from the same period in 2015, after the Germans, with 364,029 hotel night, and the Americans, with 251,283 hotel night stays.
The Gulf also came in third among other countries in terms of the average length of stay per capita at hotels. Gulf tourists stayed an average of 2.8 nights at hotels per person.
Tourists from Gulf continue to spend big time in Switzerland
Tourists from Gulf continue to spend big time in Switzerland
