The latest numbers of Switzerland’s arrivals and overnights statistics show: Switzerland became even more popular with American travelers. U.S. arrivals and overnights increased again in 2014 compared to the previous year. This marks the fifth consecutive year of increasing visitor numbers from the U.S. to Switzerland, with a total growth of more than 20% since 2009.
Recently released tourism data from the Swiss Federal Office of Statistics for the hotel industry show an increase of 3.5% in U.S. arrivals in Switzerland, for a total of 751,514. According to final 2014 figures, the number of overnight stays was 1.64 million, an increase of 3.7% compared to 2013 (only overnights in Swiss hotels are counted; vacation homes, other kinds of accommodation and visits with friends and family are not included).
"American travelers are in love with Switzerland", said Alex Herrmann, Director Americas, Switzerland Tourism. “The increase in visitor numbers from the U.S. was the highest in the Swiss Alps as well as the smaller cities and towns of Switzerland, which indicates that the strongest growth in 2014 was again in leisure travel.”
The top five destinations for the U.S. were Zurich with 431’888 overnights, Geneva (238,079), Lucerne and the Lake Lucerne Region (235,233), Bernese Oberland (159,282) and Basel (123,877). With 12,8% more overnights in 2014, the Lake Geneva Region recorded the biggest growth in American visits.
These numbers support a positive trend that has been developing over the past four years. Since 2010, Switzerland has been able to report a continuous increase in overnights from the U.S. every year, from roughly 1,400,000 to almost 1,650,000.