Experience Swiss winters

Switzerland Tourism has launched its summer campaign for 2017. The winter campaign focuses on active holidays and adventure activities in Switzerland.

With focus on the winter tourists, the winter campaign — ‘You can but you don’t have to’ — showcases multiple options like skiing, sledging and snowboarding for the active traveller and Christmas markets, open air hot springs and igloo stays for the more relaxed visitors looking for pure white relaxation in winter. The summer campaign — ‘Nature wants you back’ — to be led by Switzerland’s Brand Ambassador Ranveer Singh, will be packed with an array of activities such as sky-diving, wakeboarding, cannoning etc. combined with Switzerland’s best touristic and nature highlights.

Claudio Zemp, Director – India, Switzerland Tourism, says, “We had a very strong year last year with a 22 per cent increase and this year we are looking at similar growth. In terms of source markets too, India has grown. India is now the eighth largest source market for Switzerland, overtaking Holland and Belgium in Europe this year. We have done Switzerland Travel Experience roadshows in five cities — Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, New Delhi and Kolkata — where we met both frontline travel agencies and key buyers. A few months ago, we had taken Indian agents to our India Workshop in Switzerland and have received tremendous support.”

Ritu Sharma, Deputy Director, Switzerland Tourism India, adds, “Although Indians love to go on a vacation during the summers, we do hope for a change after the winter campaign. The summer campaign is a different take on relaxed holidays where one can give rest to the body not by sleeping but by indulging in soft adventure activities and live in pure environments.” She further informs that in 2015 nearly 600,000 Indians visited Switzerland but this is only the overnights in hotels. She says, “We are given to believe that tourists who stay in apartments, Airbnb and other forms of accommodations are nearly 200,000. This year we had set an internal target of 646,000 Indian tourists and looks like we will achieve it.”