Sara Roloff, Head of Asia Pacific, in an interview with Swiss Television (contribution via image link).

The invitation of Switzerland Tourism ST, in cooperation with Swiss International Air Lines, Swiss Travel System and the host destination of Zurich, was accepted by 116 tour operators and 86 tourism providers in June 2022. After the Switzerland Travel Market (STM), the Asia Pacific Workshop (APWS) had thus become the most important and effective platform for international buyers from the Asia Pacific region as well as for the Swiss service providers.

Asian markets, except for China, are back on the road to recovery

Consisting of a day of workshops as well as a day-long destination tour, the APWS provided a valuable opportunity for destinations to showcase their products to relevant buyers from the Asia-Pacific tourism business. These included tour operators from markets such as Australia, China (with Hong Kong and Taiwan), Japan, Korea, India, Southeast Asia and various emerging markets. In 2019, Asia-Pacific markets generated 4.5 million hotel overnight stays or a share of nearly 21% of all overnight stays. After two pandemic years, all markets except for China are back on the road to recovery. Southeast Asia even achieved an increase of 23% compared with pre-pandemic levels in the summer months from July to September.

Thanks to ST’s media work, the workshop was prominently featured on Radio SRF’s news programme Info 3 (starting at minute 5:12), and the event was also reported on in the late edition of the Tagesschau. Sara Roloff, ST’s Asia-Pacific market group manager, supported the presentation and offered context. The report made special mention of the security situation in Switzerland and the well-developed public transport system. Both of these factors make the country a popular tourist destination among travellers from the Asia-Pacific region – especially after the pandemic.