Where the pandemic has permanently changed our behavior

Corona – was something wrong? Three years ago the pandemic raged around the world and a year ago we were still working on the final measures. But now, more than 12 months later, Corona seems to have disappeared from most heads.

But how ‘normal’ has our life actually become again? Have our mobility, leisure time and eating habits changed? We analyzed data from different industries.

SBB has not yet reached pre-pandemic numbers. Since March 2020, no month has been recorded in which the 2019 comparison period has been equalized. As of January 2022, the data usually hovers somewhere above 90 percent. In January 2023, 97.7 percent of the passenger kilometers were counted compared to January 2019.

It is clear that the SBB feels a home office effect. You write on demand. “Commuter traffic is still slightly below pre-corona levels. At the end of 2022, leisure traffic was already somewhat over.”

And what about the general subscription (GA)? As a trade association for public transport, the Alliance Swiss Pass has the data for this. Since 2004, the number of GA travel cards has increased slightly each year, peaking in 2019 with around 500,000 subscriptions. After declining during the two years of the pandemic, subscriptions have risen again in 2022 and are currently at 2011 levels.

With the Half Fare travel card, the situation is different. In this case, the subscriptions in circulation in 2020 were able to maintain the figures of 2019, sales have been increasing since 2021 and have reached a provisional record of almost three million in 2022.

In addition to the train, many people use the car for recreation and commuting. The counting station of the National Road Administration (Astra) on the A1 motorway is one of the busiest traffic stations. There too, car traffic fell during the corona pandemic, but not as much as at SBB. Here too, the pre-corona level has almost been reached again.

The largest losses occurred in March, April and May 2020, while traffic during the second wave only slightly decreased in October, November and December.

But here too it is striking: on a monthly basis, no month in 2022 managed to surpass the figures of 2019.

During Corona, air traffic came to a virtual standstill. At Zurich Airport, passenger numbers collapsed to 26,913 from the record month of July 2019 (3.15 million) to April 2020. Air traffic has since recovered, but is still well below pre-corona levels. In January 2023, 1.73 million passengers were counted, in January 2020 there were still 2.01 million.

Even in a year-on-year comparison, 2022 is still lagging behind 2019. It doesn’t matter if it’s the number of passengers or the number of flight movements at Zurich Airport. However, Zurich Airport writes on request: “Due to the low passenger volume in the first quarter of 2022, values ​​are still below pre-pandemic levels, but exceed projections made in early 2022.”

Will the aviation industry fully recover? Bernd Bauer, CEO of Edelweiss and Eurowings Discover, said in the SRF Eco-Talk on Monday (February 27): “We can certainly return to pre-corona levels on short and medium-haul routes. We also have two more aircraft in use than before the Due to the corona crisis, bookings are even more hesitant on long-distance routes.”

But it is also exciting: according to Bauer, the problem is not the demand, but also the supply: “It is a combination of supply and demand and at the moment the supply is still considerably reduced. Many airlines have not yet reached their full capacity in the air and cannot provide the same service as before the crisis. Demand is coming back faster than we are able to bring the capacity to market.”

Just as we fly more and travel abroad again, Switzerland has become a destination for tourists again. During the media event on February 23, Switzerland Tourism provided the following information: “Swiss tourism will return to pre-pandemic levels in some markets in 2022.”

In particular, guests from France could be more welcome than before the corona pandemic. In general, the figures from Europe are back at the old level. Guests from Great Britain lag behind with a minus of 16.8 percent compared to 2019. The reasons for this are Brexit, the economic crisis and record inflation.

Outside Europe, guests from Southeast Asia, the Gulf States and North America are more or less back to pre-Corona levels. It is very different with China. Where 1.85 million Chinese visited our country in 2019, in 2022 there were only about 200,000. But there is also room for improvement here: the Cathay Pacific has been flying weekly from Hong Kong to Zurich since the beginning of December 2022.

In addition to foreign tourists, it is mainly local guests who make the tourist regions happy. 21.1 million overnight stays by Swiss people is not only an increase of 17.5 percent compared to 2019, but also a new record for local guests. The Swiss rediscovered their own country during Corona. It is unclear how long the trend will last.

Like tourism, the hotel industry is happy with the return to normalcy. In 2022, 38.2 million overnight stays were spent in Swiss hotels, which is only slightly less than in 2019 (39.6 million).

According to the February 23 press release, the ongoing recovery makes the sector optimistic. Even if challenges such as the shortage of skilled labor remain a problem. HotellerieSuisse President Andreas Züllig states: “The year 2022 can be described as a year of recovery. Even though we have not yet reached pre-crisis levels, we can look back on a successful, albeit turbulent, year.” In the cities, hotels are still missing about 6 percent of guests compared to 2019, in the classic holiday destinations this is only 0.5 percent.

With more than 100,000 hotel rooms for the first time, the members of HotellerieSuisse currently provide around 70 percent of the total accommodation offer in Switzerland.

In the first year of the pandemic, turnover in Swiss gastronomy fell by more than four billion to 11.2 billion francs due to the prolonged forced closures. In 2021, according to “Gastro Suisse”, turnover was even 40 percent lower than in the years before the pandemic.

Since the second quarter of 2022, the industry seems to be recovering somewhat. This is at least evident from the household expenditure of the Swiss: according to the household budget survey of the Federal Bureau of Statistics, expenditure on meals in restaurants, cafes and bars has returned to pre-pandemic levels.

For many companies, however, the upswing comes too late. According to the “St.Galler Tagblatt”, in 2022 there were more bankruptcies in catering companies in Switzerland (2935) than new ones (2445) for the first time. “This is a delayed response to government support during the Covid 19 pandemic,” explained gastronomic expert Peter Herzog, explaining the initial drop. If the federal government and the cantons had not immediately helped with immediate loans and hardships, things would have moved much faster.

The Swiss cinema industry is recovering very slowly from the corona pandemic. In 2022, Swiss cinemas registered 8.7 million visitors. That’s almost two-thirds more than last year and still only 70 percent compared to pre-pandemic levels.

René Gerber, secretary general of Pro Cinema, is nevertheless satisfied: “It’s a step in the right direction,” he said in mid-January. 2022 was the first fairly normal year since the pandemic. The flow of spectators is even lower, but operations are back to normal. The association does not expect a full recovery until around 2024.

The year could have been even more beautiful if the summer had not been so beautiful. The major blockbusters that have not been released as planned due to the corona pandemic are still missing. After all: with “Avatar: The Way of Water” the Swiss cinemas still had a blockbuster, which contributed significantly to the good annual result. The film (as of December 2022) is now the 3rd highest grossing film of all time.

Fitness centers also had a hard time during the pandemic. They had to close for a long time and later adhered to strict hygiene measures. As a result, many fitness enthusiasts canceled their subscriptions during the pandemic and changed their exercise habits.

In March 2022, fitness centers in Switzerland had about 16 percent fewer members than at the end of 2019, according to a September 2022 study by the industry association Swiss Active. According to the Swiss Fitness and Health Center Association SFGV, smaller centers in particular are suffering from the decline in the number of members. SME centers experienced a loss of membership of just over 30 percent on average.

The larger providers are doing better: “Our membership numbers are currently around 250,000 members, which is slightly above the 2019 level,” explains Silvia Talabér of Migros subsidiary Movemi AG, which includes the Migros fitness parks and all Activ-Fitness studios. belong .

According to Swiss Active’s research, in the smaller studios it was mainly people over 60 who canceled or did not renew their subscription. However, in the first quarter of 2022, the number of fitness subscribers across Switzerland increased slightly again. The next issue of the study in June will show whether the trend continues.

The corona pandemic has had a major impact on the payment behavior of the Swiss. As a study by the comparison portal “Hellosafe” shows, only one in three physical purchases was paid for with cash last year. Before the pandemic, it was every second person.

The most used physical payment method since 2021 is the debit card. About 36 percent of all purchases are processed with it – however, the trend is slightly declining. Swiss people increasingly pay with their mobile phone. Nearly 10 percent of physical purchases now go to Twint, Apple or Google Pay accounts. In 2019 that was six times less.

Paying with a mobile device has also increased even more for online purchases. In 2022, more than half of the Swiss (51.3 percent) paid for their online purchases with their mobile phone – three times more than in 2019.

On the other hand, online card payments are declining: in 2022 only 1.9 percent of all Swiss people would pay online with a debit card. Still almost 11 percent with a credit card. However, the decrease since 2019 is only 67 percent.

The time-honored invoice, on the other hand, has lost little ground. Almost a quarter of the Swiss population settle their online transactions with an invoice. This payment method is still very popular, especially for larger amounts.