Switzerland: the results of the winter season-2018

According to the official statistics of Switzerland, in November 2017 - April 2018 the country was visited by 72.6 thousand tourists from Russia, which is 9.1% more in comparison with the same period of the last winter. "The period from November to April is considered as a winter season in Switzerland. And its current results are very encouraging. The number of nights of Russians during this time increased by 7.6%, reaching 207.2 thousand", - said Maria Makarova, the Marketing and public relations manager of Switzerland Tourism. In total, according to the Federal Bureau of Statistics of Switzerland, during this period 16.5 million nights were registered in the country (+ 4.6%). At the same time, the demand from foreign tourists increased by 5.6%, reaching 8.7 million nights stays. Thus, the dynamics of the Russian market exceeds the average market growth rates. According to Ms. Makarova, this result is especially valuable after several years of serious decline of the Russian flow. The revival started only after the end of 2016 and in 2017 the Russian flow showed growth - 135.5 thousand people visited Switzerland from Russia. It is difficult to say whether such dynamic growth will continue in 2018, but there are all prerequisites for this. Moreover, as explained Ms. Makarova, the official statistics shows only nights in hotels, but a significant part of Russians choose apartments or chalets. In the past winter season the most popular were such regions of Switzerland as Basel (+ 23.3%) Lucerne (+ 12%), Valais (+ 11%) and especially Jura and Three Lakes region (+40%).