Fewer foreigners will holiday in Switzerland this winter, put off by the strength of the Swiss franc and the weak state of the global economy, a research institute said on Tuesday.
BAK Basel predicted overnight stays in hotels by foreigners will fall 1.8 percent this winter, having already slipped in the summer and last winter. However, the forecast produced for the Swiss Secretariat for Economics (SECO) forecasts that overnight stays by Swiss people will creep up 0.2 percent this winter.
Since the financial crisis erupted in 2008, Switzerland's mountain regions have suffered a 14 percent fall in overnight hotel stays.
Visits by European tourists, such as from Germany or the Netherlands, have fallen particularly sharply. BAK Basel expects 2013 will be another weak year and the tourism sector will only return to growth in 2014, seeing hotel stays rise 1.8 percent assuming the euro zone emerges from the crisis and economic growth gains pace worldwide as per a reuters report.
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