Zwei Frauen besprechen sich an einem Tisch vor einem Laptop am Summit in Texas. ©  CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 unbekannt / Gstaad Saanenland Tourismus

Switzerland Tourism Summit Texas

Eine lächelnde Gruppe sieht auf eine grosse Plastikkuh und einen Melkstuhl am Boden. ©  CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 unbekannt / ©Gstaad Saanenland Tourismus

Switerland Tourism Event Texas 2023

Eine Gruppe aus der Schweiz am Essen, während des Summits in Texas. ©  CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 unbekannt / ©Gstaad Saanenland Tourismus

Switzerland Tourism Summit Texas

 Lade

Hello US

Sales activity: Switzerland Travel Experience US – May 2023

Gstaad Saanenland Tourism took part in the yearly Switzerland Travel Experience organised by Switzerland Tourism together with 24 other partners from Switzerland. We met 80 tour operators and travel agents from the east, west coast and midwest in 1to1 meetings, dinner receptions and activities in San Antonio (TX) and Miami (FL).

We are happy to share a few key trends in the US market:

  • Guests take more international trips and spend more per vacation:

    - 2.2 Trips pre pandemic up to 3.8 per year in 2022
    - Overall spend up by 16%
    - Millenials take almost 4 times more international trips than Boomers
    - Boomers spend more than twice per trip than Millenials

  • GenZ and Millenials feel robbed of adventures and travel experiences. They do not wait and save – they travel now and enjoy life.

  • More sources used than ever before to plan vacations

  • Share of bookings on smart phone up by 15% between 2019 and 2022. Share shift to from mobile web to mobile app.

  • 79% of international travellers prefer to visit multiple locations.

  • Interest in Europe much smaller with GenZ and Millenials than with Boomers. Social Media is extremely powerful. Very good content need to be produced (videos). Tik Tok is very powerful and the most downloaded app – but attention, already banned in the state Montana this year. 

  • Growing importance of price and value. Household savings from the pandemic are depleting slowly but surely. US is very expensive even for us Swiss (coffee, food like in Switzerland) – inflation slowed down but was at 8%.

  • Planning window has lengthend. We even look at a 180+ day search window

  • Experiences are everything: Culinary, wellness, off-the-beaten-path etc. Our products such as fondueland is very well received. Off the beaten path will be our USP in the upcoming years. Here it is important that we make our traditional offers bookable (stable visit, unique experiences to experience our region). A lot of tourists are looking for a real Swiss experience.

  • Americans are strong pre-bookers

  • Destination Preferences: NEW, SAFE, WARM!

  • General interest in summer and winter.

  • Strong competition with other countries especially Italy, Greece, France. Younger travellers tend not to have Switzerland in their mind. A lot of agencies, companies changed after Covid (not existing anymore, new people etc.) and there are a lot of new home-based agents out there with very little Swiss knowledge (also career changer).

  • Hiking and biking (e-bike but also road bike) are requested products however hiking in general is not the same for US people as for us (go up to a mountain and do a small hike with panoramic views and a fondue experience for example or visit a mountain restaurant). The product fondueland is very much liked as it has the «adventurous factor and uniqueness».

  • During winter time our extensive ski area up to the Glacier3000 (8 mountains) is well received as a product. 



If you have questions, do not hesitate to contact: 

Ariane Ludwig-Meichtry
Leitung Marketing & Sales
Tel. +41 33 748 81 19
ariane.ludwig@gstaad.ch