St Gallen's red centre is a magnet for tourists
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The tourist industry saw a slight decline in visitors in 2011, final year-end figures show, to 35.5 million overnight stays.
Overall the drop was 2 percent. Decreases were seen only with European tourists, down 7 percent, in terms of overnight stays. The Americas are treated together statistically and while visitors from the US were down by 14,000 overnight stays, Brazilian visitors’ stays rose by 16,000, thus contributing to a rise from the region.
Chinese visitors were up 47 percent, with 191,000 more overnight stays and Indians spend 68,000 more nights in Switzerland.
Nestle expands, Migros deals go social, Russian renewable energy in, ice cream boss dies
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Swiss business news highlights this week:
- Nestlé is expanding its largest instant coffee manufacturing plant, in Russia, investing CHF240 million for its soluble coffee factory in Timashevsk, Russia, in the Krasnodar region. The plant uses freeze-dry technology and is Nestlé’s largest soluble coffee factory in Europe as well as the company’s biggest investment project in Russia. The products are sold to the Russian market and for export to other Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries. Nestlé Russia employss 10,000 people; the company has been active in Russia for 140 years.
- Supermarket giant Migros is taking firm steps to move shoppers online, with special discounts for its online fans the wave of the future. Online shopping, through Le Shoppe, has been growing strongly for several years, and the shoppers’ club Migipedia has allowed the food chain to ask consumers what they want. Now Migros is offering special discounts in its electronics departments, but only through its Facebook page, only to “fans”. More such special deals, online fans only need apply, are down the road, the store promises.
- Switzerland and Russia signed a Memorandum of Understanding Wednesday 19 October covering renewable energy and energy efficiency, agreeing to work more closely together in these two areas. The agreement was reached on the sidelines of the bi-annual meeting of the International Energy Agency ministerial conference in Paris, France.
- In other energy news: The Federal Council has drawn up stricter criteria for members of the board of the Federal Nuclear Energy Inspection body, to ensure its independence, following criticism earlier in the year when media and public attention focused sharply on Swiss nuclear energy operations. Tuesday the lower house of Parliament annuonced that its energy commission has recommended strongly that it accept revisions made by the upper house to motions that will formally end Switzerland’s use of nuclear energy.
- Ueli Prager died Saturday 15 October, age 95. He founded the Mövenpick line of restaurants and hotels in 1948 and launched a number of branded products starting with coffee in 1963 and ice cream in 1968. His family sold their majority share in the business in the 1990s.
Chateau d'Ouchy, on Lausanne waterfront, sold to Lausanne Palace
GENEVA / LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – The Loterie Romande’s offshoot, Romande des Jeux, Monday 4 July sold the Chateau d’Ouchy to the Lausanne Palace hotel and spa for CHF45 million. The Loterie Romande paid CHF35m for it several years ago with the idea of turning it into a casino.
The federal gaming authorities refused to give it a license, however, and the owners, a public service utility under Swiss law, decided to invest CHF15m for major renovations in 2008, paying particular respect to the historical landmark nature of the building.
The Lausanne Palace was given a mandate in 2008 to run the Chateau, an arrangement that appears to have suited both parties.
Rocco Forte’s sale of Le Richemond followed by new management
Foreign tobacco companies may have undermined new laws
China will soon take the dramatic step of banning cigarettes in hotels, restaurants, shopping malls and most other indoor public spaces, 1 May, but the huge shift away from public smoking comes with so little in the way of punishment that the sting is missing from the new laws. China has one of the world’s highest smoking rates, over 30 percent of the adult population.
If observers in China are complacently shrugging, the government, which signed a 2005 convention with the World Health Organization, is slowly but surely putting in place several measures to curb smoking, such as raising taxes on cigarettes. Producers of TV shows and films were told at the start of 2011 to curb smoking scenes after a survey showed that 33 percent of teenagers wanted to smoke after seeing people do it on-screen.
Smoking is estimated by the government to have killed 1.2 million Chinese in 2005, but that annual rate could triple by 2030, they fear.
Tobacco accounts for 7 percent of government revenues in China, according to Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald, a possible factor in slowing down the adoption of new no-smoking measures, the newspaper implies, but The New Yorker magazine published an article 25 March that points to efforts made by foreign tobacco manufacturers to seriously undermine the Chinese government’s efforts.
Your guide to a holiday-season weekend in Zurich, an easy train ride from Lake Geneva
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Zurich, December, view over the Limmat, universities above the Niederdorf
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The charm of Zurich is at its brightest in the lead-up to Christmas. Daytime offers plenty of activities for children and adults alike, but the real fun starts in the evening. The entire city appears to spill out of offices and shops to socialize in the snowy streets, tucking into cozy cafes and restaurants when the weather turns too brisk. It’s an easy two hours and 50 minute by train from Geneva, 30 minutes less from Lausanne, making it the perfect mini-vacation for people in the Lake Geneva area who want to leave home without the cost and fatigue of going abroad.
Swarovski crystals cover Zurich main station giant tree
The week before Christmas sees Zurich shoppers filling the stores and boutiques, as they do in any big city. Shops are open Sunday 19 December throughout the city and they are open later than usual in the evenings up to Christmas. The Bahnhof, or main train station, has what is arguably the best Christmas market in Switzerland, with a great selection of gifts, but there are also scores of small Christmas stands sprinkled around the city and small markets that are good fun.
Be sure to go back to the Bahnhof in the evening, when the locals invade it, sipping hot gluwein, the spicy scent of which fills the air. The giant Swarovski Christmas tree is an astonishing site, with over 5,000 crystal decorations. Given that these start at CHF130 in the Swarovski shop on the Bahnhofstrasse, the cost of the tree as well as its beauty are enough to make you pause. The tree itself is a 35-year-old Zurich pine from the forest above the city.
Your best starting point is at the main train station’s tourism office, where you can get excellent maps, brochures and the Zurich City Card (see below). The Bahnhof station can be confusing at the best of times, and renovations don’t make it easier to get your bearings. Do what the locals do and look up: the huge, colourful Guardian Angel (Schutzengel) by artist Niki de St Phalle serves as a good meeting point and reference.
Zurich Bahnhof, travellers' nana, "Guardian Angel"
The popular Nana figure weighs 1.2 tons and is 11 metres high. It was offered to the station in 1997 by Securitas to celebrate the 150th birthday of Swiss railways. The tourism office’s “i” is a few metres away.
Three very special treats during the holidays: extraordinary Picasso retrospective, ice skating, the Singing Tree
Tourism up strongly, unemployment down slightly, retail sales slip
Geneva continues to have highest jobless rate
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Swiss economic indicators this week are showing a mixed picture, with several federal statistics published Friday. Overnight stays rose by 5 percent overall and by 6 percent for foreign visitors in March, compared to March 2009, an increase of 153,000 stays for the month.
The good news continues with unemployment, which fell from 4.2 percent in March to 4.0 percent in April, representing 7,462 fewer people on the unemployment office books, but the figure is still 16 percent higher than a year earlier. Geneva and Vaud both saw an improvement, with Neuchatel showing one of the greatest drops, from 7 percent to 6.5, but all three continue to have higher rates than the rest of the country. Geneva’s rate, at 7.2 percent, remains the highest cantonal unemployment rate in Switzerland.
Less positive were figures for retail sales, down 0.9 percent for the month of March compared to February.
Afghan authorities say 17 people died early Friday 26 February in a spate of attacks in Kabul that were aimed at foreigners. Suicide bombers struck in several areas, starting with one at 06:30 next to the city’s largest shopping centre. Indian and Pakistan nationals were among those who died. Other bombs went off in areas near United Nations and humanitarian groups’ offices. The blasts come just a day after the Afghan flag was raised at Marja, a longtime insurgent stronghold. Responsibility for the blasts was taken by the Taliban, according to Reuters.
Links to other sites: Bangkok Post, Los Angeles Times, Reuters, Telegraph, UK
The new Aminona resort would be built next to the three existing white towers
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The WWF Switzerland and the Swiss Fund for the Protection of Nature (FP) said Tuesday 8 December they have filed an appeal against the Aminona resort project near Crans-Montana in canton Valais, saying they “fear a fiasco for nature and the surrounding countryside, as well as for the region itself.”
The CHF350 million-plus plan, proposed by Aminona Luxury Resort and Village (ALRV)/Mirax, with support from the commune of Mollens, calls for 15 buildings to be constructed. Mollens has given a green light to the first phase of the project moving ahead, but environmental groups say neither the Russian developer Mirax nor the commune have given adequate assurances to a series of questions raised: the additional pressure on surrounding undeveloped areas, transport management, water supplies in this dryest part of Switzerland, energy management. For transport, WWF and the FP say the commune has provided only contradictory information, saying on the one hand public transport will be provided, and on the other, that the plans call for more than 500 parking spaces with no coordinated public transport.
Switzerland: great trains, great mountains, but fewer visitors in 2009
Neuchatel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss government’s figures for tourism during the summer of 2009, from May to October, show a gloomy picture, with a 4.2 percent drop in the number of overnight stays compared to 2008. Swiss tourists fell by 2.1 percent but a sharp drop in foreign tourism, down 5.8 percent had a significant impact.
Overall, the Swiss tourism industry registered 19.7 million overnight stays for the summer season.
Discreet Swiss hotel windows are sometimes a good minibar substitute
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The 55,000 mini-bars in Swiss hotels consume far more energy than the average home refrigerator for a family of four, some 24 million kW hours in a year. The heart of the problem is the sad news for hotel clients who love drinks in their rooms that a 40-litre minibar consumes 0.9 kW/h versus the 0.24 that a 150-litre refrigerator uses.
Expect tight security around the WTO buildings, but mainly at the CICG where the conference takes place
Several thousand in Geneva for WTO meeting, demonstration
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The barriers were being readied in front of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Thursday 26 November along the lake road in Geneva, and security measures around the area began to move into place for the start of the Seventh Ministerial Conference Monday 30 November, with several thousand people expected to take part.
Hotels have little space, but for local residents the main sign of the global talks will be disrupted traffic.
Detours and road closings begin Saturday 28 November, when 3,000-5,000 demonstrators are expected to take part in an anti-WTO march that starts at 14:30 at the Place Neuve.
Anti-WTO march Saturday after in centre of Geneva
The Vengeron exit (where the road split before the airport) on the A1 autoroute into Geneva, coming from Lausanne, will be closed early Saturday 28 November until the end of the march late afternoon. Traffic will be directed to the airport exit.
The march itinerary supplied by Geneva police:
Update 18 November Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Anne-Sophie Pic, head chef at the Beau-Rivage Palace Hotel in Lausanne, has been given a prestigious second star by French-based Michelin Red Guides, whose new guide to Switzerland comes out 19 November. The Beau-Rivage is one of only thirteen 2-star restaurants in Switzerland. Pic leads the way for the Lake Geneva region, which continues to boast two of Switzerland’s three three-star restaurants, Philippe Rochat in Crissier, canton Vaud and Le Pont de Brent in Montreux, Vaud.
Swiss restaurants have a total of 101 stars, making it the country with the highest number of starred restaurants per inhabitant.
Michelin’s new guide to Tokyo is also out (it goes on sale in Europe only in February 2010). The city now has the highest number of 3-star restaurants in the world, with three. It also has more stars than any other city, 261, and Michelin refers to it as “world leader in gourmet dining.”
Two other restaurants which currently have one star are in line to receive a second star: Auberge de Floris in Anières, canton Geneva and Homann’s Restaurant in Samnaun, canton Graubuenden.
Michelin gave new single stars to three restaurants in Geneva, awarding them to chefs:
Indonesian anti-terror units killed four people and arrested a woman in a raid on a house in Solo City, central Java in Indonesia early 17 September, after a nine-hour siege. Police indicated that they were “90 percent sure” that one of the dead was Noordin Mohammed Top, Indonesia’s most wanted terrorist, believed responsible for suicide attacks on two hotels in the capital Jakarta in July. Noordin leads a radical splinter group called al Qaeda in the Malay Archipelago, an offshoot of Islamist group Jemaah Islamiyah. He was earlier believed to have been killed in a shoot-out with police in August, but police later identified the dead person as a florist who was giving the group information. AFP, CNN
© 2009 CICG
Complete coverage of the WCC-3 by GenevaLunch
Conference is 31 August – 4 September 2009
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The third World Climate Conference (WCC-3) promises “better climate information for a better future” but in the immediate short term it is expected to cause a severe strain on Geneva’s traffic and accommodations this week.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Petty larceny, with pickpocketing high on the list, has been rising in Geneva: 1,597 arrests in 2006; 1,794 in 2007 and 1,955 in 2008, according to police figures, possibly in line with a nationwide increase, but comparative figures will not be available before 2010, reports AFP. The news agency notes in an article on Geneva crime that the number of cases of bodily harm have doubled during this period, with figures covering everything from slaps to serious injuries.
Tourists in Geneva
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Hotels in Geneva are increasing the pressure on the government to improve security for visitors to the city, in the wake of accusations by the consul general of Saudi Arabia that police did not do enough when a Saudi citizen was seriously injured and robbed in what the man’s lawyer says was an attack in the city centre, according to news agency ATS.
CNN, in a travel feature, explores the delicate question of when do you label as “theft” the things people take from hotels. The answer is far from black and white, but will probably reassure the many who have worried over the years about tucking hotel soap and shampoo into their bags. Grooming products, it turns out, are often seen by hotels as a way of marketing their brand. On the other hand, taking the sheets is frowned upon, and unscrew your iPod dock and you might find the hotel sees red. Or writes it off and builds it into the cost of rooms.
Neuchatel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Easter was a happy, or at least welcome holiday for the Swiss tourism industry in 2009, giving overnight stays in the country a temporary boost from otherwise gloomy figures. April figures were up 1.8 percent over the previous year, with Germans and Belgians leading the way. When March and April tourism figures are taken together, to discount the impact of this year’s long Easter weekend and fine weather, the number of overnight stays was down by 7.5 percent compared to 2008.
Making prices crystal clear
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The hotel and restaurant industry in Switzerland is under pressure from the Swiss Federal Department of Finance to conform to newly published federal ordinance that covers room and food advertising and pricing. The ministry argues that transparent prices and the ability to compare prices are two essential ingredients in a market economy. Tourism is one of the country’s largest industries, with domestic and foreign tourists spending nearly CHF 21 billion (2004, latest figures).
The pricing regulations (pdf, Fre) include such details as ice cream with cream as an option: the cream should be priced separately. For lodging, the ordinance gives hotels this example:
price per night, breakfast included, sales tax and tourism tax, CHF120.00 (also includes the City Card with a value of CHF6.00, valid for all forms of public transportation).
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland’s gross domestic product (GDP) fell by 0.8 percent in the first three months of 2009 compared to the last quarter of 2008. The drop was 2.4 percent compared to the same period in 2008. Foreign trade was the main culprit, says the federal government: exports of goods fells by 6.6 percent and of services by 2.3 percent.
Lake of the Four Cantons, Lucerne, one of Switzerland's most popular destinations
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss hotel industry can expect its worst year since 1982, according to a report prepared by consultants BAKBasel, and released 19 May by the Swiss Secretariat for the Economy, Seco. Overnight stays for the 2009 summer season (May to October) are expected to drop 7.2 percent compared to last summer. And things won’t be back to normal until 2011, the report says.
Updated 12:30 Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Preliminary figures for Swiss gross domestic product (GDP) growth in 2008 show 1.6% growth (at constant previous year prices) and 3.9% at current prices, based on averages of the four quarters. The estimated figures were released 3 March with Bern’s fourth quarter GDP report. But Q4 figures showed a fall, the second quarterly slip in a row, technically putting Switzerland into a recession (TSR, Fre).
Matterhorn, Zermatt, Switzerland
Neuchatel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The tourism industry appears to be worrying about the impact on its business of the global financial crisis, but the most recent figures, for August 2008, show that tourism remained strong well into the third quarter of the year, with the number of hotel nights up by 3.5%, to 4.3 million nights.
Bern, Switzerland (Tribune de Geneve, Fre) – The political fight over allowing smoking in public is not likely to be resolved soon in Switzerland. Read more…
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