Vision

Swiss tourism is currently enjoying great prosperity across the country. Healthy margins are being achieved by both flagship enterprises with international reach as well as smaller choice tourism providers, thus generating the capacity for new vitality and innovation.

 

Brigitta M. Gadient, what attracted you to the role of President of Switzerland Tourism ST?

Tourism is one of our country’s most important economic sectors. I therefore see this as a unique opportunity to do my part, with heart and soul, for this country, its beauty and everything that makes it special – and for the industry that promotes it. And as a native of Graubünden, I feel a close, innate connection with tourism. It is everywhere here.

Pulling together, strengthening dialogue and retrenching: how Switzerland Tourism responded to the global pandemic in 2020.

As the new President, how have you found ST as an organisation during this global Covid-19 pandemic?

As the national tourism marketing organisation, ST has a tremendous responsibility towards suppliers of tourism services. I have seen this spirit of responsibility in ample evidence in my interactions with ST employees throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, which has been tough on us all. ST has responded in innovative and agile fashion to the strict and ever-changing travel restrictions. That took the form of offers such as Bed ’n’ Bureau, responding to the “workcation” trend, and the Million Stars Hotel for intimate accommodation close to nature, of new developments such as the Market Indicator System, of the new Industry Calls, and of the planning for the entire package of recovery measures.

Within the organisation, we approved a recruitment freeze, cut posts through natural staff turnover and launched a virtual jobs platform, enabling us to help each other out across teams and countries.

What are your objectives as President?

I want to help ensure that the major tourism industry players can work together even more closely in future around the major tourism themes of safety, sustainability and digitalisation.

I have witnessed how well such cooperation can work on multiple occasions during this pandemic. The tourism alliance of all major industry organisations pulled together at the three tourism summits in Bern. That meant that we were able to have the ear of (then) President of the Confederation Simonetta Sommaruga and Federal Councillors Alain Berset and Guy Parmelin regarding the concerns of the tourism industry. I was very impressed by that cooperation.

President of Switzerland Tourism: Brigitta M. Gadient
Brigitta M. Gadient is the first woman President in Switzerland Tourism’s history, which dates back over 100 years. A native of Graubünden, she was a Member of the Swiss Parliament from 1995 to 2011. She has her own legal practice in Chur, acting as a legal, organisational and strategic consultant, and serves in roles including President of the University of Applied Sciences Graubünden (FHGR), Vice President of the Swiss Red Cross and President of the Swiss Aviation Foundation (Schweizer Luftfahrtstiftung).