Tourism in Switzerland

Tourists are drawn to Switzerland's Alpine climate and landscapes, in particular for skiing and mountaineering.

History

Tourism begins with British mountaineers climbing the main peaks of the Bernese Alps in the early 19th century (Jungfrau 1811, Finsteraarhorn 1812). The Alpine Club in London is founded in 1857. Reconvalescence in the Alpine climate, in particular from Tuberculosis, is another important branch of tourism in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Because of the prominence of the Bernese Alps in British mountaineering, the Bernese Oberland was long especially known as a tourist destination. Meiringen's Reichenbach Falls achieved literary fame as the site of the fictional death of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes (1893).

tatistics

Official statistics of tourism were planned since 1852, but were only realized from 1934, and continued until 2003. Since 2004, the Federal Office for Statistics had discontinued its own statistics, but collaborates with Switzerland Tourism in the publication of yearly "Swiss Tourism Figures". In the year 2006, there was a total number of 4,967 registered hotels or hostels, offering a total of 240,000 beds in 128,000 rooms. This capacity was saturated to 41.7% (compared to 39.7% in 2005), amounting to a total of 38.8 million lodging nights. 14% of hotels were in Grisons, 12% each in the Valais and Eastern Switzerland, 11% in Central Switzerland and 9% in the Bernese Oberland. The ratio of lodging nights in relation to resident population ("tourism intensity", a measure for the relative importance of tourism to local economy) was largest in Grisons (8.3) and Bernese Oberland (5.3), compared to a Swiss average of 1.3. 56.4% of lodging nights were by visitors from abroad (broken down by nationality: 16.5% Germany, 6.3% UK, 4.8% USA, 3.6% France, 3.0% Italy) [Switzerland Tourism, "Swiss Tourism in Figures - 2007 [http://www.swisstourfed.ch/art/dokumente/vademekum/en/Def_Version_englisch.pdf] "] The total financial volume associated with tourism, including transportation, is estimated to CHF 13.3 billion (as of 2006) although more may arise from fuel tax and sales of motorway vignettes. Of this sum, tourist travelling and lodging accounts for 52% (CHF 6.9 billion) or CHF 178 per lodging night. [ [http://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/portal/de/index/themen/10/02/blank/key/01.html bfs.admin.ch] [http://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/portal/de/index/regionen/thematische_karten/maps/tourismus.html] ] CHF 13.3 billion correspond to 3.6% of Switzerland's GDP.

The major airport of Switzerland is at Zurich, main railway connections are to Geneva, Zurich and Basel. The main connection across the Alps is via the Gotthard tunnels (road and railway).

Destinations

Notable tourist destinations in Switzerland:
*Grisons
**Engadin
**Davos
*Eastern Switzerland
**Wildhaus
*Central Switzerland
**Lucerne
*Valais
**Aletsch
**Saas-Fee
**Zermatt
*Bernese Oberland
**Grindelwald
**Gstaad
**Interlaken
*Bernese Alps
**Jungfrau
*Canton Ticino
**Locarno
**Lugano
**Ascona

References

* [http://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/portal/de/index/themen/10.html Swiss Federal Office of Statistics]

ee also

*Swiss Federal Railways
*Geography of Switzerland
*Swiss Alps
*Valleys of the Alps
*List of ski areas and resorts in Switzerland
*Swiss National Park
*List of lakes in Switzerland
*Economy of Switzerland

External links

* [http://www.myswitzerland.com Switzerland Tourism] , a national tourism organisation
* [http://www.communal.ch/communal/default.asp?lng=E List of Swiss municipalities] , all about Swiss municipalities
* [http://wikitravel.org/en/Switzerland Wikitravel]