Hotels: Historic decline in overnight stays
The Swiss hotel industry recorded a total of 9.9 million overnight stays in the first half of 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This is 47.5% less than in the same period last year.
According to provisional results from the Federal Statistical Office (FSO), the number of overnight stays in January and February 2020 increased by 6.3% and 6.4% respectively compared to the same months in the previous year. In March, however, when the Federal Council declared an "extraordinary situation" in connection with Covid-19 and the lockdown came into effect, demand slumped by 62.3%.
The most significant drop was recorded in April, with 92.4% or 2.5 million overnight stays fewer than in the same month last year. According to the FSO, only 205,000 overnight stays were recorded. All tourism regions were affected by the slump in March and April.
In May, 79.2% (-2.4 million) fewer overnight stays (625,000) were recorded than in the same month last year. According to the FSO, demand fell sharply in all tourism regions in May. However, Graubünden (-46.4% / -57,000) and Jura & Three-Lakes Region (-49.5% / -26,000) reported slightly less negative figures than the other tourism regions, according to the Federal Statistical Office.
Following further easing of the Covid-19 measures, 1.4 million overnight stays were recorded across Switzerland in June, which is 62.0% (2.4 million) fewer than in June 2019. Demand from domestic guests fell by 24.7% compared to the previous year, which is the smallest decline since March. Foreign guests accounted for 274,000 overnight stays, which is 87.8% less than in the previous year.
The decline in overnight stays affected all 13 tourism regions, with only Ticino (-32.6%), Graubünden (-34.9%), Jura & Three-Lakes Region (-35.1%) and Eastern Switzerland (-37.6%) remaining below 40%. (ah)
