Crime Scene Tourism Switzerland
The current developments in Switzerland's tourism sector could be described as a "crime scene in tourism". The Federal Council has adopted its message on location promotion 2020-2023. Part of this is also made up of the funding decisions for the four most important tourism promotion funds: Innotour, New Regional Policy (NRP), Swiss Society for Hotel Credit (SGH) and funds for Switzerland Tourism (ST).
Despite well-founded arguments, the Federal Council had not responded to the demands in favour of Swiss tourism. At this year's Rendez-vous Touristique of the Swiss Tourism Federation (STV), experts and project sponsors used selected best practice examples to appeal to parliament to reverse the funding cuts decided by the Federal Council and thus not to further weaken Switzerland as a tourist destination.
Rendez-vous Touristique
Last March, the Swiss Tourism Federation invited representatives from politics, business and associations to the Rendez-vous Touristique at the Bellevue Palace in Bern in order to draw attention to the importance of and the need to adjust the funds for tourism promotion instruments.
After the welcome by the National Councillor and President of the STV, Dominique de Buman, Barbara Gisi, Director of the STV, pointed out that, despite the slight recovery in the last two years, the tourism industry still has to contend with many challenges.
Small and medium-sized enterprises in mountainous areas are particularly dependent on public support. A brief presentation of the individual subsidies was followed by presentations by selected project promoters who were able to demonstrate with conviction that the subsidies are necessary and are being used efficiently.
Martin Nydegger, Director of Switzerland Tourism, showed that the national marketing organisation is effectively involved in the development of the Swiss tourism industry and stressed how important it is to win back the European market of origin - which is particularly important for mountain regions. Afterwards, the Olympic champion and President of the Swiss Snowsports Initiative (gosnow.ch)
Promising projects
Tanja Frieden how successful the project supported by Innotour is in helping to preserve snow sports camps - and thus an important Swiss tradition. Mia Engiadina is a very successful and forward-looking project for mountain regions that was supported by the New Regional Policy. Jon Erni, CEO of Mia Engiadina, made it clear that digitalisation can and must indeed contribute to the successful economic development of mountain regions.
In the last presentation, Jean-Jacques Schilt, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Grand Hôtel du Cervin à St-Luc, presented the ambitious renovation and extension project of the historic building, which is supported by the SGH.
At the end, those responsible for the four subsidies Martin Nydegger (Director ST), Philippe Pasche (Director SGH), Valérie Donzel (Head of Department Regional and Spatial Planning Policy SECO) and Richard Kämpf (Head of Department Tourism Policy SECO) answered questions from the audience. The event was accompanied musically by Nayan Stalder on the hammered dulcimer - in harmony with mountain tourism, as it were.
You can find more information about the tourism event at this Link
