Switzerland offers various choices of ski resorts, from small villages to large stations.

It has been the “Mecca” for winter sports enthusiasts since long. In 2015, more than 1.1 million Chinese guests visited the country. However, arrival numbers from China stopped growing since then.

The Chinese Government had set a target of getting 300 million Chinese involved in winter sports as part of their successful bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics, which will be held in Beijing. Switzerland, therefore, began to prepare since 2015 for an intensified interest of Chinese visitors in winter sports and started to hire Chinese-speaking ski coaches. Nevertheless, the results were not in line with the efforts made.

Prof. Barbara Haller, a Swiss expert in Chinese outbound tourism as well as winter sports, has now published together with three co-authors (including Prof. Wolfgang Arlt, director of COTRI) results of her research on “Chinese Guests in Alpine Destinations – What Are They Looking for?“. The text, which is published as a chapter in the book “Winter Tourism: Trends and Challenges”, CABI 2019, provides insights into the answer to the question of why Switzerland was not able to benefit from the emerging market of winter sports in China in the last few years. Follow us and see the results in this year’s last editorial on COTRI WEEKLY. https://paper.li/cotriweekly#/

The first edition in 2020 will be published on January 7th.

Photo by Melvin Wahlin from Pexels