Switzerland Tourism ST is a federal corporation under public law tasked with promoting domestic and international tourism demand for Switzerland as a holiday, travel and conference destination.

The development and implementation of demand-stimulating marketing programmes and the profiling of the strong, traditional yet modern Swiss tourism brand both nationally and internationally are its key priorities. ST does this in close collaboration with the tourism sector, which contributes around half of the budget. The other half consists of federal funds. The organisation is oriented towards customers and markets, and is managed in accordance with commercial criteria.

ST is present in 23 markets worldwide, employing around 270 people (248 FTEs) spread over 34 offices. ST is a corporation under public law with a membership structure. Its Board of Directors comprises 13 representatives from the tourism sector, business and industry associations. Brigitta M. Gadient chairs the organisation, while Martin Nydegger is responsible for operational management. In 2019, Parliament decided to create a credit facility of CHF 230 million as the federal contribution for the 2020–2023 period (same as for the 2016–2019 period), thereby setting an upper limit. Each year, Parliament can decide whether this limit is to be fully utilised. The federal contribution accounts for 56% of ST’s budget. The other 44% is contributed by the sector, members and business partners.

Equal pay analysis
The revised Federal Gender Equality Act (GEA) brought in a requirement for companies in Switzerland to carry out an internal equal pay analysis. Switzerland Tourism has therefore conducted an equal pay analysis for its head office, and the findings have been independently audited. No statistically significant gender-based pay discrimination was identified, with the prescribed tolerance level set at +/- 5%. As such, ST complied with the legal provisions on equal pay and the requirements under Art. 13d GEA and Art. 7 of the associated ordinance.
Facts and figures
    
Markets   23
Staff
– of whom trainees (German)		   272 (248 FTEs)
22
Spending*
– of which regular federal funding		 CHF million
CHF million		 106.24
70.23
Spending abroad CHF million 78.69
Degree of self-financing % 33.90
Marketing budget/
marketing staff		 CHF 327,000 
*including recovery funds