Photo: Seco
Basel / Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Swiss economy remains relatively steady, but with Credit Suisse’s Swiss manufacturing index dropping slightly and the forecast for tourism showing lower but stable figures in coming months. The manufacturing figures “still [show] however that the Alpine economy is leaving the deep recession behind,” reports news agency Reuters. The tourism forecast is gloomier and follows publication of figures by BakBasel, an economic research institute, showing that tourism from November 2008 to October 2009 was the second lowest since the end of the second world war: only 1995 was lower.
Neuchatel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Basel area was the only Swiss region to see an increase in overnight stays in July, 9.6 percent as compared to July 2008, according to Swiss Statistics, the federal statistics office. The city registered 11,000 overnight stays in July.
The total for Switzerland was 4.1 million in July, down 5 percent over last year, although hotel stays by Swiss tourists were down only 2.9 percent. The number of visitors from Germany and the UK showed the greatest declines.
Lake Geneva
Complete coverage of the WCC-3 by GenevaLunch
Conference is 31 August – 4 September 2009
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Geneva is home this week to a key global conference on how the world can adapt to climate change – disasters such as floods and hurricanes, but also the more subtle changes that affect agriculture, tourism and daily life.
The conference agenda is wide-ranging and includes improvements to early warning systems for disasters and how to provide more precise and more localized weather forecasting, needed by developing countries as well as industries in the developed world.
The meeting is hosted by Switzerland and organized by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and a group of partners.
Consumer spending, Switzerland
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Figures published by the Swiss federal government 4-6 August for tourism and the consumer price index, taken with the latest federal quarterly survey of consumer spending, show a mixed economic picture.
Lucerne's bridge, reputed to be the most photographed site in Switzerland
Neuchatel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Foreign tourists continued to visit Switzerland at a strong rate in 2008, despite the start of the economic crisis, spending CHF15.6 billion, up by more than CHF1 million over 2007. The increase of 6.7 percent was offset, for the balance of payments, by a 2.3 percent drop in the amount Swiss tourists spent abroad. Overall, the trade balance was positive, at CHF3.8 billion.
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.
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.
Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Economic figures released Friday 6 March show a mixed impact as the recession got underway in Switzerland. The number of overnight stays in Swiss hotels was down 4.6% in January, compared to a year earlier, to 2.9 million, with stays for foreigners down 5.8%. Consumer prices continued to rise slightly, up 0.2% in February compared to January 2009.
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.
Five German toursts, among the 11 Europeans kidnapped along with their Egyptian guides, in the desert in Egypt, arrived home Wednesday. They were taken hostage by a group that appears to belong to the Sudanese Liberation Movement, a group fighting the Sudanese government. CNN
