Swiss hotel industry records superlative winter

Last winter will go down in the annals of the Swiss hotel industry, with 18.5 million overnight stays between November and the end of April. +Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox This new benchmark was achieved thanks to growth of 2.8% or 479,000 overnight stays, the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) reported on Thursday. + Is mass tourism beneficial for Switzerland? The trend in visitor numbers was uneven from one month to the next, with February (-2.8%) the only black spot in the series. March saw an increase of 0.3% and December a jump of 7.0%. The 9.3 million overnight stays booked by local guests also set a new record, while the 9.2 million bookings from abroad represented a performance not seen for 17 years. While mountain destinations saw only limited growth, urban regions such as Zurich (+5.4%), Basel (+9.9%) and Geneva (+4.2%) recorded more dynamic developments. In April alone, overnight stays rose by 4.4% to 2.9 million. Translated from French by ...