Roger Federer (41) is Switzerland’s top brand ambassador even after his tennis career is over: the former tennis star is also very popular in China. Swiss Tourism wants to use this potential for an advertising attack in the country of more than 1.4 billion inhabitants, as “NZZ am Sonntag” reports.
The campaign begins this month and is expected to run throughout the year. This is hardly a coincidence, as the Chinese government abandoned its rigorous zero Covid policy a month ago. For two years, China’s population was barely able to travel abroad due to strict Covid rules.
Chinese guests spend 380 francs a day
Just this year, Chinese guests are said to have spent 800,000 nights in Swiss hotels, roughly half of 2019. That number should more than double in three years.
Until the corona epidemic, China was one of the most important growth markets for Swiss tourism. The number of overnight stays by Chinese guests at the hotel has increased by an average of 17 percent over the past few years.
Hotels and mountain railways, as well as luxury shops selling jewelry or watches, also take advantage of Chinese guests. They spend an average of 380 francs every day in Switzerland, while the Swiss only spend 160 francs.
Is mass tourism returning?
But with the increase in the number of tourists from China, there were also discussions about mass tourism in Switzerland before the pandemic. Buses filled with passengers from China then made the pilgrimage, crossing the shopping miles, and landed mainly at Interlaken BE and Lucerne. The tourist flow was too much for many people in Lucerne, as a 2020 survey by the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts showed.
Not everyone likes the fact that these influxes of guests can now return: “In 2019, the population was fed up with the tourist mass. “For two years he was able to take a deep breath,” Peter Vollmer, 76, former Vice President of Tourism for Switzerland, tells “NZZ am Sonntag”. The hotel operator would have wanted Swiss tourism to be reorganized after the pandemic. “The Swiss will no longer participate at some point.”
However, as Switzerland Tourism notes “NZZaS”, the focus is on first class guests and individual tourists. The guest segment from China has changed in recent years. The Chinese middle class is increasingly traveling with family or friends. The next few months will show which guest groups the ad campaign with Roger Federer will ultimately attract. (smt)