Roger, I’m a certain type of actor. I need edge, conflict, danger. Switzerland is just too perfect, ”joked the 77-year-old method actor Robert De Niro in the current No Drama campaign film by Switzerland Tourism. In it, Roger Federer, who himself was appointed ambassador for the Swiss Association at the beginning of the year, tries to win De Niro for one of the best tourism advertising films of recent times. Don’t take our word for it. Within two weeks of the video’s release last month, it has already passed the 45 million mark – making it the most-watched Federer commercial of all time on YouTube.

The film takes place in the midst of an apocalyptic past year for the global tourism industry. In 2019, the global travel and tourism sector reportedly contributed $ 8.9 trillion to global GDP. In the first 10 months of 2020 alone, the global tourism industry lost around $ 935 billion in revenue. Among the top 10 countries that suffered the largest loss of tourism revenue due to Covid-19 were five European countries including Spain, France, Germany, Italy and the UK. “Ski areas in Switzerland were open. Swiss hotels weren’t closed for a single day. All restaurants in the hotels were open and mobility was always intact, ”explains Martin Nydegger, CEO of Switzerland Tourism, why tourism in the Alpine country was not as badly affected as some of its neighbors. “We didn’t have any peaks or super-spreading conditions. Compared to other countries, we had a much more liberal opening regime. “

Switzerland Tourism is a 102-year-old body, but Nydegger has no illusions about the onslaught of Covid-19 on Swiss tourism, which he describes as a “historical impact”. Although tourism accounts for about 6 percent of the country’s GDP, he says, its role in the overall branding and positioning of the country is likely far higher.

The Swiss tourism company has 33 branches in 22 markets – in some countries such as China and Germany it has several branches – with 250 employees worldwide. They are led by Nydegger, whose first job was a six-month internship at the Taj Mahal Palace in Mumbai. In 2005 he joined Switzerland Tourism and managed operations in the Benelux countries. He then spent eight years at headquarters and was responsible for business development on the Executive Board before being appointed CEO in 2018.

He describes 2020 as a “pointless year” when it comes to benchmarking Switzerland’s tourist performance, and instead says that 2019 will be the year that recovery will be measured. According to the Federal Statistical Office, foreign guests recorded 21.6 million overnight stays in 2019, while the Swiss recorded 17.9 million overnight stays in hotels across the country.

The GCC is not the largest feeder market for Swiss tourism, but neither is it an insignificant one. As Matthias Albrecht, GCC Director of Switzerland Tourism, explains, golf tourists are typically responsible for around one million overnight stays in Switzerland and generate around 420 million Swiss francs in sales per year in Europe. The largest source markets for the GCC are the United Arab Emirates (35 percent) and Saudi Arabia (35 percent), with Kuwait and Qatar each accounting for around 12 percent, the remaining visitors come from Bahrain and Oman.

But a large part of the tourist flow to Switzerland dried up last year due to the pandemic. “We had a few tourists in the summer and that kind of softened the fall. Long haul travelers from markets like Asia and America fell from minus 90 down [per cent], and down to minus 97 [per cent] from Asia, ”reveals Nydegger. With an average of CHF 380 per person per day, Chinese visitors are among the most expensive foreign visitors to the country. In 2019, the income from Chinese visitors was estimated at around CHF 701.4 million.

witzerland Tourismus has set up a 4D experience in the Swiss pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai

One factor that kept the wheels of tourism going, albeit a little sluggishly, was domestic tourism. According to the Federal Statistical Office, every person residing in Switzerland made an average of 2.9 trips with overnight stays in 2019. “Inland tourism is the key to a successful tourist destination like Switzerland. However, the market mix is ​​decisive. If you only have domestic tourism, you will never really grow as domestic tourism is a stabilizing factor. It’s not a growth factor, ”warns Nydegger regarding tourism organizations that are overly focusing on domestic tourism during this pandemic.

“Fifty-five percent of our visitors are foreign tourists. What we think would be a healthy share for Switzerland would be 45 percent of domestic tourism, 35 percent of continental European tourism and 20 percent of international tourism – and that’s not that far from reality. “

A coordinated response is required for tourism to recover around the world. And while Nydegger says international tourism organizations are generally competitive in marketing their destinations, there are synergies too. He points out that the European Travel Commission, of which Switzerland is a member, is involved in cross-tourism committee discussions on the safe opening of Europe, on the sustainable design of travel and on overcoming common weaknesses.

In the UAE, Switzerland has teamed up with other European agencies to promote the continent. “We recently had an event called Marhaba Europe in Dubai where we partnered with France, Austria and Germany to promote Central Europe. We are spreading the message that Europe is open again this summer, ”says Albrecht.

In order to further strengthen its message in the region, Switzerland Tourism has set up a 4D experience in the Swiss pavilion at Expo 2020 (by the way, the country was the first participant to register for the mega-event), which enables pavilion visitors to to see, hear and experience Switzerland through various media and even feel the cold that is characteristic of the country inside the pavilion.

“We want to focus on sustainability at the Expo, we call it Swisstainable. We want to show how sustainable traveling in Switzerland is – you can explore the whole of Switzerland by train, bus and boat, ”adds Albrecht. Expo 2020 Dubai is expected to attract around 25 million visitors – around 70 percent of them from outside the UAE.

The Swisstainable concept flows into what Nydegger says that it will be the new post-Covid reality for tourism. “To wish everything went back to February 2020 is an illusion. We live in a different world. We developed Swisstainable because we believe that people will consider travel more sensibly. Travelers will want to know that the money they spend on the destination is well spent. You buy locally. You want to make sure that the people at the hotel you go to are paid fairly and treated fairly. They want to know that not a single tree was felled when this mountain railway was built on the Jungfraujoch. People want to know that the electricity that brings them to the top of the mountain is entirely hydroelectric. All of these things seemed absolutely uninteresting before. People now want to know that their francs are being spent intelligently and sustainably so that they feel better. “

Nydegger assumes that tourism in Switzerland will reach around 80 percent of the level before Covid within the next 12 months. While he says recreational tourism will pick up much faster, business tourism is likely to be the laggard. “[To reach] 100 percent will take a long time. Why? Because business trips slow down the development of tourism. We can live with 80 percent. We’ll have to make adjustments, but we can live with that. “

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