Tourism in Switzerland

Tourists are drawn to Switzerland's diverse landscape as well as the available activities, which take advantage of the Alpine climate and landscapes, in particular skiing and mountaineering, but also due to the many old town centers with their historic buildings and which often preserve parts of their medieval fortifications.

As of 2016, tourism accounted for an estimated 2.6% (CHF 16.8 billion) of Switzerland's GDP, compared to 2.6% (CHF 12.8 billion) in 2001.^[1]

Tourism began in Switzerland with British mountaineers climbing the main peaks of the Bernese Alps in the early 19th century.

The Alpine Club in London was founded in 1857. Reconvalescence in the Alpine, in particular from tuberculosis, was another important branch of tourism in the 19th and early 20th centuries: for example in Davos, Graubünden. Due to 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). The first organised tourist holidays to Switzerland were offered during the 19th century by Thomas Cook and Lunn Travel companies. Tourism in Switzerland had been exclusively for the rich until it became widely popular in the 20th century.^[2]

Large cities

Smaller cities

Small towns

Resorts in the Alps

Natural regions

• Bernese Alps, between the Swiss Plateau and Valais, known for its high mountains (notably Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau) and huge glaciers (notably the Aletsch Glacier), and deep valleys with waterfalls like the Lauterbrunnental
• Valais Alps, on the left side of the Rhone valley, contains the highest mountains in the country (notably Monte Rosa and the Matterhorn) and big ski resorts like Zermatt
• Gotthard Massif, with the Gotthard Pass at its heart, notable for the historic Gotthard routes (north–south axis), the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn railway (west–east axis) and the many other high road passes (Nufenen, Grimsel, Furka, Susten, Klausen, Oberalp and Lukmanier)
• Lake Lucerne, the largest lake in central Switzerland, notable for the many mountain railways in the surrounding mountains, notably the Rigi and Pilatus Railway
• Lake Geneva, the largest lake in the country, notable for the Riviera and the many vineyards
• Lake Constance, the second largest lake in the country
• Seeland, the region of Lake Neuchâtel, Lake Biel and Lake Morat
• Jura Mountains, a moderately elevated mountain region north of the Swiss Plateau
• Rhine (Alpine Rhine, High Rhine), the largest river in the country, is also notable for the Rhine Falls
• Italian Lakes, a group of lakes on the Italian border (Maggiore and Lugano), notable for being the warmest place in the country

Hiking is one of the main sports activities in Switzerland and is often referred to as the "national sport". About one-third of the population practice hiking regularly, with a total of 520 million kilometres (in 130 million hours) being travelled every year by the Swiss. Along with cycling, walking, in general, is the preferred form of mobility, regardless of social origins. The total hiking trail network is about 65,000 km (40,000 mi).^[3] Hiking trails in Switzerland offer a wide range of difficulty levels, catering to both casual walkers and experienced mountaineers, with many routes featuring breathtaking views of the Alps and pristine natural landscapes.^[4]

The following navigation companies offer tourism-oriented boat services on Swiss lakes and rivers:

• Compagnie Générale de Navigation sur le lac Léman on Lake Geneva (Lac Léman)
• Zürichsee-Schifffahrtsgesellschaft on Lake Zurich (Zürichsee) and the Limmat
• Società Navigazione del Lago di Lugano on Lake Lugano (Lago di Lugano / Lago di Ceresio)
• Lake Lucerne Navigation Company on Lake Lucerne (Vierwaldstättersee)
• Schiffsbetrieb Walensee on Lake Walen (Walensee)
• Schweizerische Schifffahrtsgesellschaft Untersee und Rhein on Lower Lake Constance (Untersee) and the High Rhine

Tourism-oriented trains run mostly under the Panorama Express (PE) category. Examples are:

Official statistics of tourism were planned in 1852, but were only realized in 1934, and continued until 2003. Since 2004, the Federal Statistical Office had discontinued its statistics, but collaborates with Switzerland Tourism in the publication of yearly "Swiss Tourism Figures". In the year 2011, a total number of 4,967 registered hotels or hostels, offered 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% United Kingdom, 4.8% United States, 3.6% France, 3.0% Italy).^[5]

The total financial volume associated with tourism, including transportation, is estimated to CHF 35.5 billion (as of 2010) although some of this comes from fuel tax and sales of motorway vignettes. The total gross value added from tourism is 14.9 billion. Tourism provides a total of 144,838 full-time equivalent jobs in the entire country. The total financial volume of tourist lodging is 5.19 billion CHF and eating at the lodging provides an additional 5.19 billion. The total gross value added of 14.9 billion is about 2.9% of Switzerland's 2010 nominal GDP of 550.57 billion CHF.^[6][7]

The most visited Swiss tourist attractions are first, the Rhine Falls, second, the Berne Bear exhibit (both without entrance fee), and third, with over 1.8 million paid entries: Zoo Basel.

Most overnight stays in 2019 in Switzerland were from the following countries of residence:^[10]

Rank	Country	Number of overnight stays
1	Germany	3,925,653
2	United States	2,474,360
3	United Kingdom	1,641,429
4	China	1,583,799
5	France	1,227,105
6	Italy	887,679
7	Gulf states	863,767
8	India	792,607
9	Netherlands	648,054
10	Belgium	636,425
Total foreign		21,639,611

• List of World Heritage Sites in Switzerland
• List of ski areas and resorts in Switzerland
• Economy of Switzerland
• Geography of Switzerland
• Swiss School of Tourism and Hospitality
• Transport in Switzerland

• Barton, Susan. Healthy living in the Alps: The origins of winter tourism in Switzerland, 1860-1914 (Manchester University Press, 2008).
• Dominici, Sara, and Robert Maitland. "The PTA: Promoting Swiss Tours, 1888–1939." Annals of Tourism Research 60 (2016): 31–47.
• Orland, Barbara. "Alpine Landscapes of Health: The Swiss Whey Cure and Therapeutic Tourism between 1750 and 1870." in Connecting Territories (Brill, 2021) pp. 210–241.
• Tonnerre, Quentin. "The 1928 Olympic Winter Games in St Moritz: Tourism, Diplomacy and Domestic Politics." International Journal of the History of Sport 38.13-14 (2021): 1385–1402. online
• Vonnard, Philippe, and Grégory Quin. "More than just football. Reflections on the case of the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland." Entreprises et histoire 4 (2018): 75–89. One goal was more tourists. online
• (in French) Christophe Clivaz, Tourisme d'hiver, le défi climatique , Presses polytechniques et universitaires romandes, collection "Le Savoir suisse", 144 pages, 2015 (ISBN 9782889151516).
• Tourism in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland.

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Switzerland.

Media related to Tourism in Switzerland at Wikimedia Commons

• Switzerland Tourism, a national tourism organisation