Previous post Next post

Swiss hoteliers are cautiously optimistic for the winter season

Swiss hoteliers are cautiously optimistic for the winter season
Swiss hoteliers are cautiously optimistic for the winter season Keystone-SDA

Most Swiss hoteliers are cautiously optimistic about the coming winter season. Especially in the Alpine regions, businesses are confident. However, increased costs are likely to weigh on margins.

+Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox

Around 56% of Swiss hoteliers expect turnover in the 2024/25 winter season to be the same as in the previous year, according to a statement issued by the Hotelleriesuisse association on Monday. However, this would represent stagnation at a high level, especially as the number of overnight stays reached a high of 18 million in the previous year. Around a quarter of those surveyed expect a further increase.

Confidence is particularly high in the Alpine regions, where one in three businesses is expecting higher turnover. This forecast is supported by the hope of good weather and snow conditions. In contrast, businesses in urban and rural regions are comparatively cautious.

Cost pressure

High costs are causing problems for the industry. Looking back, 55% of those surveyed reported lower margins during the last summer season. The majority of establishments were therefore only able to pass on some of the increased costs to guests. Hoteliers cited higher staff costs as the most important cost driver, followed by higher energy prices and inflation in general.

More

This coming winter only a minority are likely to succeed in adjusting prices to the higher cost base: only just under a third of establishments intend to increase prices, compared to half of them in the last survey.

Now half are planning to keep prices the same and around 15% want to reduce prices. According to the study, price adjustments due to demand play a secondary role in the increases, while they are the main reason for planned reductions.

Lack of staff

According to the association, another major problem for hoteliers is the continuing shortage of staff. A clear majority of respondents named this as the biggest challenge for the industry.

Changes in the composition of guests and the short-term nature of bookings, which had a negative impact on planning reliability, were also high on the barometer of concerns. According to the survey, climate change also poses major challenges for the industry.

According to the press release, around 160 members of the Hotelleriesuisse association took part in the annual survey. They were surveyed between October 25 and 31, 2024.

Translated from German by DeepL/jdp

This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.

If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to [email protected].

Swiss hoteliers are cautiously optimistic for the winter season

More

Swiss village must be evacuated by midday on Sunday

This content was published on The village of Brienz-Brinzauls in eastern Switzerland, which is threatened by a rockfall, must be evacuated by 1pm on Sunday. All residents must leave the village.

Read more: Swiss village must be evacuated by midday on Sunday
Swiss hoteliers are cautiously optimistic for the winter season

More

Former Swiss judge found guilty of rape

This content was published on A former judge of the Graubünden Administrative Court in eastern Switzerland has been found guilty of rape, sexual harassment and threatening a former trainee.

Read more: Former Swiss judge found guilty of rape
Swiss hoteliers are cautiously optimistic for the winter season

More

SWISS extends flight ban to Tel Aviv

This content was published on The Lufthansa Group, which includes Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) has once again extended its flight ban to Israel.

Read more: SWISS extends flight ban to Tel Aviv
Full story here Are you the author?
About Swissinfo
Swissinfo
SWI swissinfo.ch – the international service of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC). Since 1999, swissinfo.ch has fulfilled the federal government’s mandate to distribute information about Switzerland internationally, supplementing the online offerings of the radio and television stations of the SBC. Today, the international service is directed above all at an international audience interested in Switzerland, as well as at Swiss citizens living abroad.
Previous post See more for 3.) Swissinfo Business and Economy Next post
Tags: ,

Permanent link to this article: https://snbchf.com/2024/11/swiss-hoteliers-cautiously-optimistic-winter-season/

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.