Tourism began in Switzerland with Britishmountaineers 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]
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
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 65,000km (40,000mi).[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]
Boating
The following navigation companies offer tourism-oriented boat services on Swiss lakes and rivers:
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.
Jungfrau railway (with Eiger in the background), one of the major tourist attractions of the High Alps (1 million visitors in 2015 (up from 0.866 million in 2014). The Jungfraujoch railway station is the highest in Europe, at an elevation of 3,454 metres (11,332ft).
Rhine Falls
Antelope House at Zoo Basel, Switzerland's most visited tourist attraction with an entrance fee
Overnight stays by country
Most overnight stays in 2019 in Switzerland were from the following countries of residence:[10]
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
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
Bern Old City with the Zytglogge
Geneva Jet d'Eau with Mont Blanc
Aletsch Glacier with Aletsch Forest
Lake Geneva with the Lavaux vineyards
Chillon Castle with the Dents du Midi
Tremola road of the Gotthard Pass
Lake Lugano from Parco Ciani
Werdenberg with Castle
