A visitor’s eye view of winter

The 2019/20 winter campaign launched potential visitors straight into the Swiss winter, with images and videos from a first-person perspective. Under the slogan “Come and see for yourself”, Switzerland Tourism ST focused on the diversity of winter sports activities available.

Suggested reading

The 2020/21 winter campaign was designed to inspire people to try something new and to tactfully chime with the current mood.

The campaign involved online and offline measures, with targets based around the previous winter season. Despite the abrupt end brought about when lockdown was introduced in mid-March, the key campaign indicators for winter 2019/20 were a resounding success:

• The winter clip alone notched up more than 23 million views (+54% versus the previous year).
• Visitors to the winter website increased by 58% year on year to 720,000.
• Media contacts were increased by 21% versus the previous winter.
• The new winter magazine had a print run of 300,000 and was distributed in hotel rooms and tourist offices.
• Together, the various advertisements of the main campaign generated 162 million impressions.

Kids4Free attracted nearly 44,000 winter visitors

All the measures had a common focus on shared experiences, whether as a family or in a group. One example is the Kids4Free campaign. As part of the winter campaign, ST and its participating partner destinations enabled children aged under 13 to use ski lifts free of charge in the 2019/20 winter season, giving away some 12,000 weekly ski passes in a prize draw. Nearly 4,200 people completed the accompanying questionnaire.

It showed that the average family size was 3.25 people. Extrapolated out to all the winners, the campaign thus brought almost 44,000 winter visitors to Swiss ski and snowboard destinations. It was positive to see that 14% of the families would not have planned a winter holiday in Switzerland if it weren’t for Kids4Free. The survey also found that more than 1,300 children and 164 adults attended a ski school for the first time as a result. 

“Luggage special” for added convenience

ST offered travellers genuine added value with the “Luggage special” – this was intended to run for the entire 2019/20 winter season but had to be halted because of the first Covid-19 lockdown. It involved a cooperation with Swiss Federal Railways (SBB), 240 hotel operators and 48 winter sports resorts. The offer attracted a lot of interest: by the end of the 2019/20 winter season, a total of 5,861 orders had been received, with 21,869 items of luggage transported.

Visitors’ main motivation was comfort and convenience

A survey showed that visitors were mainly motivated by the more pleasant experience of luggage-free travel. It also found that one-third would have chosen to travel by car without this offer, another third would have transported their own luggage by train, and the final third would have had it transported by another service provider. As such, the project brought greater satisfaction for visitors wanting to make the journey by train. It also served as an incentive to leave the car at home more often and travel in comfort by rail instead. Sustainability projects of this kind have gained in significance for ST in recent years. 

Season cut short by Covid-19 pandemic

The 2019/20 winter season ended abruptly when the country entered roughly three months of lockdown on 16 March 2020 – a step made necessary in Switzerland and many other countries by the Covid-19 pandemic. The uncertainty caused by mounting travel restrictions in the weeks before and the early end to the season had a negative impact on the figures: the Federal Statistical Office recorded a 23.9% drop in hotel overnight stays compared with the previous winter season (November to April).

Facts and figures

*Only views of pages with specific winter campaign content are counted.