China-Switzerland: Deeper relationship thanks to winter tourism

7 years ago - Published in Alternative investments, Finance

With the development of China-Swiss relations, the winter sport industry has become one of the focuses of the two countries. World Winter Sports (Beijing) Expo 2017 ("WWSE," will be held September 7-10 in Beijing) will keep up with the development trend, inviting Switzerland as the Major Honored Guest Country to start relevant cooperation and promote the development of winter sport industry, enhancing WWSE to a new stage. WWSE is co-organized by Beijing Olympic City Development Association (BODA) and International Data Group (IDG).

According to a recent research, Oxford University and Switzerland Tourism predicted that, by 2022, the number of Chinese tourists to Switzerland is expected to reach 2 million. The Chinese market has become Switzerland's fourth largest overseas tourist market. Since the end of 2012, Switzerland Tourism has been actively promoting Swiss winter tourism projects in China, the four-year effort of which has shown effective results: during the winter of 2015 and 2016, the total number of overnight Chinese tourists staying in Swiss mountain areas reached 189,148, accounting for 44.7% of total overnights for all regions. 

Switzerland Tourism, as an important international exhibitor of first WWSE, is optimistic about the growth of the Chinese winter market: it is convinced China will become the world’s largest winter sports market. Present reality also bites: Its traditional markets Germany, Italy and France, which have been filling up all the rooms in peak winter season, are all in decline because there’s less money, either due to their weaker economies or the higher Swiss franc.

During the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2017, President Xi Jinping visited Switzerland and signed a cooperation agreement with Doris Leuthard, President of Switzerland, to jointly launch the "2017 China-Switzerland Tourism Year" and deepen the cooperation in winter sports industry. Switzerland Tourism will also hold a series of online and offline activities in China for the public, and bring the best winter lifestyle of "Switzerland – Home of Snow Sport" to Chinese tourists.