But the Chinese are not yet returning to Switzerland.

For two years, China was virtually cut off from the world. Only a few have been able to enter or want to enter the country, and 1.4 billion Chinese are also largely stuck due to severe corona measures. This will soon change: from January 8, 2023, there will no longer be a quarantine requirement at entry. As soon as this became known, searches for overseas trips increased rapidly on Chinese platforms.

This is also of great interest for Swiss tourism destinations. In 2019, the last full year before the coronavirus pandemic, China was the fifth most important source market for Swiss tourism. 1.8 million overnight stays were recorded by Chinese tourists, mostly during the summer months. Every tourist from China spent 380 francs per day. No wonder the Chinese have been sorely missed ever since.

No immediate return

But the fact that the Chinese will soon be able to travel again does not cause any enthusiasm. “This step will not lead to an immediately noticeable increase in Chinese guests in Switzerland,” said Markus Berger, spokesperson for Swiss Tourism. First trips abroad take Chinese guests primarily to Southeast Asia, Japan and Korea. This is confirmed by Stephan Roemer (59), CEO of Diethelm Travel Asia: There are already requests from Chinese groups for trips to Asian destinations.

Intercontinental travel will likely take a long time due to the lack of flight capacity and visa infrastructure. Roemer doesn’t expect a large number of flights between Europe and China again until mid-2023. Airlines are keenly interested in flying back to the world’s most populous country. However, Switzerland, for example, does not operate any passenger flights to and from China in the short term: this must be accomplished with operational stability in the long term, a Swiss spokesperson said.

Full recovery from 2025 only

Accordingly, only a few guests from China are likely to arrive in the first half of the year, and then slightly more from summer/autumn. “For 2023, we expect almost 50 percent of hotel overnights in 2019 to fully return to 2019 levels by the end of 2025 or 2026,” Berger says.

Swiss resorts with traditionally high numbers of Chinese tourists will need to be patient. These are primarily the tourist areas of Lucerne/Vierwaldstättersee and the Bernese Oberland. Lucerne Tourism has yet to register any increased booking requests from China. Spokesperson Sybille Gerardi dares not make any predictions – in addition to the hurdles mentioned, such as flight capacity and visas, declining consumption in China and, above all, the critical pandemic situation there is causing the restriction.

Marketing accelerated

For now, little is left: the route is now being set for the return of the Chinese. Swiss Tourism has never stopped working in the Chinese market. Many marketing activities were conducted online. “But now we will definitely increase the intensity of our activities significantly,” says Berger. Swiss Tourism is planning various events and campaigns to make Switzerland popular with the Chinese again.