Switzerland Tourism ST carries out the Tourism Monitor Switzerland (TMS) survey every four years. The results of the latest survey were unveiled at Switzerland Vacation Day 2018.

Main travel reason

Europe’s biggest national guest survey covers 25 topics, including their motivation for travelling: tourists taking part in the survey chose those that applied best to them from a choice of 120 aspects and also named their main reason for travel. The results of the latest survey may surprise some people. For instance, young Swiss respondents (those in the 16 to 35 age group) most often cited “Family-friendly” (11.3%) as their main reason for travel, followed by “Sport opportunities” (7.7%). These figures support ST’s decision to promote skiing for children with the Kids4Free(German Article) project. The winter campaign 2018/2019 kicked off with a prize draw offering over 12,000 weekly ski passes. Visitors from abroad in the same age group most often cited “Special nature attractions” (7.2%), with “Nature” as a more general category in second place (6.7%). ST targets the specific needs of those who are attracted by nature with its summer campaigns (for instance in 2018: “Nature wants you back – on your bike.”).

21 535 guests

from 130 countries were interviewed by ST for the TMS 2017. Which group of guests stated most frequently that they were completely satisfied with the hospitality?

  1. Australia
  2. Czech Republic
  3. India
  4. Austria
  5. Poland
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According to TMS 2017, Czech guests rated hospitality in Switzerland as the highest at 92.2% (fully satisfied), followed by Poland (91.6%), Australia (90.1%), Austria (89.8%) and India (89.3%). The overall average is 83%.

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Hospitality

There is a persistent belief among Swiss guests that Swiss hosts are not hospitable enough. Thanks to the TMS, there are facts that disprove this assumption: 83% of guests are completely satisfied with hospitality (the choices are “not satisfied”, “partly satisfied” and “completely satisfied”). Satisfaction has increased significantly since the last survey, rising by 4.2%. The many initiatives taken by the sector in recent years to make Switzerland more hospitable, for instance with the Prix Bienvenu(German), have paid off. Looking separately at Swiss tourists and those from other countries, the picture is a familiar one. Swiss people have a rather more critical attitude towards their own country than foreign visitors: while 81.5% of Swiss guests were satisfied with hospitality, the corresponding figure for guests from abroad was 84.9%.

Knowing your guests

It is vital for tourist service suppliers to have information on important points such as guests’ requirements, suppliers’ own strengths and weaknesses and the information sources used by guests. With the TMS, ST offers the sector a valuable tool that helps suppliers make the right decisions about their positioning, marketing communication and how to improve their offering. ST members can easily log in themselves to access the data. 

A total of 22 destinations wanting to gain further insight have bought special access to the TMS. Figures relating to the particular destination, based on a solid sample size, are made available to each of them exclusively.

Methods and sample sizes TMS 2017
The TMS is a representative survey of Swiss overnight tourism (leisure segment). Led by the ST Market Research department, it is carried out every four years. The TMS is Europe’s most comprehensive national tourism survey: in tourism year 2017, it was conducted across 180 Swiss destinations, with 21,500 tourists from 130 countries answering the online questionnaire. The carefully targeted questions make TMS a valuable marketing instrument for the tourism sector.