Switzerland Tourism’s travel fair highlights attractions

Wednesday, March 20, 2024

Chocolate fondue rafting, karaoke gondola rides and glacier hikes were just a few of the activities introduced during Switzerland Tourism’s travel fair at The Westin Josun Seoul in Jung District, central Seoul, on Tuesday.

Ahead of the opening of direct flight routes between Incheon and Zurich for the first time since 1998, the hype for Swiss travel has been mounting among locals.

Starting May 7, Korea and Switzerland will be connected through roughly 13-hour flights under Swiss International Air Lines, three times a week with the Airbus A340.

Representatives from 21 Swiss tourism offices, airlines and railways attended Tuesday’s Switzerland Travel Experience (STE) Korea 2024 fair to promote their respective products to some 200 local travel industry workers.

“This is by far the largest event that we’ve ever held in Korea, and it is a testament to the dedicated interest by our Swiss partners to draw in more Korean tourists,” according to Switzerland Tourism’s market manager Jean Kim.

Switzerland is the third most visited European country by Koreans, following France and Italy, according to local research company Consumer Insight’s Kim Min-hwa.

The number of Koreans going to Switzerland has more than recovered from the pandemic, increasing 4.3 percentage points between 2019 and 2023, to 39.17 million visitors.

Within Asia, Korea brings the second-most number of tourists to Switzerland, behind China.

“It can be concluded that many Koreans want to travel to Switzerland, especially when comparing numbers with Japan, which has more people and a higher gross national income than Korea but only sees half the number of people annually traveling to Switzerland compared to Korea,” Kim said.

Of those, there are now more young Korean visitors, she added. A total of 41 percent of local visitors to Switzerland were in their 20s and 30s last year, compared to 26 percent in 2019.

Another finding was many Korean’s desire to relish Europe’s natural landscapes.

“Switzerland, along with Norway, Denmark and Finland, which are all famous for their nature, were all able to recover their pre-pandemic numbers of Korean visitors, whereas places like Italy and Germany have yet to see as many visitors to their countries as before the pandemic.”

Swiss tourism facilities are enthusiastic about curating Earth-friendly campaigns as well, according to Switzerland Tourism. Under a government-run sustainability campaign dubbed “Swisstainable,” many establishments and services for tourists in Switzerland are dedicated to offering sustainable trips.

Those that meet the campaign standards are given “Swisstainable” labels that visitors can find posted on their physical locations and online pages.

Switzerland Tourism also advocates for all-year-round tourism, longer stays and widespread visitors across all its regions, to decrease the carbon footprint of its tourists.

Switzerland Tourism’s Kim described Switzerland’s commitment to sustainable tourism as its competitive advantage and real value added for visitors.

“This sort of sustainable tourism is unique to Switzerland, and visitors will be able to witness how Swiss locals live in harmony with nature and practice sustainability,” she said.

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