Fall For Switzerland
Looking at the demand for what travellers want from a Swiss vacation, Martin Nydegger, the CEO of Switzerland Tourism, believes visitors are seeking the road less travelled, reports assistant editor, Ann Ruppenstein in this week’s digital edition of Canadian Travel Press.
“It’s a new mind shift in the travel industry, which we can sense here that previously people had that sense of FOMO – fear of missing out – how can you go to Switzerland and not see the Matterhorn? But this is kind of fading out into a discover something new mentality,” Nydegger told Canadian Travel Press on location in Lucerne for Switzerland Travel Mart. “Don’t post the highlight which everyone knows, show us something which is a hidden gem, so we can see that already in terms of demand.”
Although Switzerland as a destination isn’t suffering from overcrowding, he said this outlook also helps spread visitors across the country.
“You hear at this moment so much about Europe in terms of overtourism, people are a little bit afraid that they might just have to queue up all the time. What we do is we want to show Switzerland in autumn, but also in different places,” he explained. “We really want people to discover the [country]. Of course, you want to see the Chapel bridge, you want to see Matterhorn and maybe Jungfraujoch, which is totally fine, but we really want to emphasize places like the Lavaux area, new places to discover and I think that’s the new trend. People also ask: show me hidden gems, next to the tourism highlights and attractions, show me things that are still to discover.”
As such, the tourism organization is promoting itself as a destination loaded with wine tourism, which makes it worthy of a visit since only 1.5% of Swiss wines get exported, as well as a place to visit in the fall with milder weather and as the leaves are vibrant shades of red and orange.
“It’s a little bit like the new face of Switzerland, which is of course exaggerated, it’s not entirely new but so many people know Switzerland in summer with the dominant colour green and the blue sky, they know it in winter with the dominant colour being white, so we want to give a new view of Switzerland,” he said.
For the full story, check out this week’s digital edition of Canadian Travel Press.
