TravTalk India Online Magazine
Christian Schoch, Director India, Switzerland Tourism, is happy to share that there has been an uptick in sales of Swiss Travel Pass in the India market, particularly the eight-day pass, which also means that Indians are staying longer in the destination.
Hazel Jain
The newly appointed India Director for Switzerland Tourism, Christian Schoch, is well-versed with the Indian market but keen on learning more about Indian travellers from the trade partners. Schoch, who met quite a few agents during his welcome dinner at the Consul General’s residence in Mumbai, reveals that moving ahead Switzerland Tourism plans to explore tier I and II Indian cities. “We already focus on the metro cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Bengaluru. But now we also want to focus on tier II and III cities in India because we see a lot of potential in these markets – not just in terms of tourist numbers but also training. We want to support the tour operators all over India and encourage them to learn more about Switzerland,” he shares.
Evolving Indian travellers
Last year, Switzerland saw a huge jump in visitor numbers as compared to the year before. Schoch expresses hope that the visitor numbers will return to the pre-pandemic level, which were around 800,000 to 870,000 hotel overnights from Indian guests in Switzerland. “We see a change in the profile of Indian guests travelling to Switzerland today. We see more experienced travellers, who are more interested in outdoor sports and adventure activities, such as skiing, hiking, biking, paragliding and speed boat. And, of course, there is the extended season, so we promote autumn and winter season also, which is in even higher demand by the Indian guests,” he shares. Schoch adds that not just activities, but the local food culture also interests them now. “Switzerland offers a wide range of vegan and vegetarian food, and we see an increase in demand for culinary experiences in Switzerland. We have many Indian restaurants, and this is an added value for our Indian guests. Indian guests, especially in their 30s and 40s, want to teach their kids skiing and I think Switzerland is a great place to learn skiing, as we have a lot of ski resorts. We see high demand for skiing from the Indian guests,” he shares.
Schoch says that the destination now sees more FITs, bigger family groups, as well as friends and solo travellers. “Of course, groups are still important for us. But we see a slight shift from group travellers into FIT travellers. We also see a higher demand for luxury travel. More and more hotels are investing in the Indian market because they see an increase in bookings from Indian guests. We also see higher demand for MICE, especially incentive groups. They want to explore Switzerland on their own by boat, train or bus,” he says.
India is among the top three markets in terms of daily expenditure in Switzerland, which is more than 300 Swiss Francs per day. “We see this expenditure towards accommodation, in adventure and in food. The top two are the GCC market and China. We also see an uptick in sales of Swiss Travel Pass. This year, we saw an increase of 22 per cent from January to June,” Schoch says.
