– The rotten spring has little effect on the travel habits of the Swiss
Travel agencies are not seeing any particular rush towards hot countries. But there is a trend for fall vacations.
Published today at 12:56 p.m.
The French-speaking Swiss have their well-established habits for summer vacations.
PIERRE ALBOUY
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While the month of June is well underway, the sun is struggling to appear in the Swiss sky. In recent weeks, rainfall of rare intensity has drenched the cantons of Geneva and Vaud. Few Swiss people want to stay in the country with such weather.
According to a study ofHelloSafe, only 18% of the Swiss population plans to spend their vacation in Switzerland this summer. This is the lowest proportion in Europe. Last year, 22% of them had vacationed in the country. The same document reports that Italy, France and Spain remain the favorite destinations and that the weather remains the number one criterion for choosing a vacation. Finally, the Swiss seem to favor long vacations, with 2.3 weeks of travel on average. The European median is located
Have travel agencies noticed this desire to escape the rotten weather of this spring? Not really. “In fact, summer vacations are planned well in advance, often as early as January,” explains Guillaume Pozzobon, head of the Fert agency in Geneva. Many people want to go to Sardinia. A strong fashion phenomenon has developed around this island.”
Strong demand for fall
On the other hand, the agency notes a rush on the fall and winter holidays. Between Japan, Vietnam, and even southern Africa, the Swiss seem to favor exotic destinations. “Our drawers are full of files to process. Leaving again when the temperatures drop seems to be very popular. We are seeing an increase in requests for long trips. Partly because of the bad weather we are experiencing now,” estimates Guillaume Pozzobon.
On the Lausanne side, we don’t have the same outlook. The Sol Voyages company judges that the weather does not have too much influence on travel habits. “On the other hand, there is a real tendency to take long vacations,” notes Jean-Pierre Minuti, manager at Sol Voyages. I see a post-Covid catch-up effect. People are getting there early and booking big trips.”
Few families leave
This summer, the agency’s clients are favoring Polynesia or Bali. This winter, they will instead go in search of mild temperatures, near Mexico or the Maldives. “What’s really missing are families,” he regrets. We feel that it is financially complicated for this type of traveler. It seems to me to be very correlated with the increase in the cost of living.”
However, this desire to go far away in autumn is not unanimous. At Delta Voyages in Geneva, there are few reservations in this slot. “This year, the weather is not particularly pushing people to change their vacation plans or to plan other ones,” judges Christine Giner, tourism advisor. But it is true that, in the past, when the weather was gloomy, we often had more requests.”
Little surprise: at Delta, customers seem to prefer Nordic destinations in summer. Greenland, Scandinavia, Arctic Islands. On the other hand, just like the two previous agencies, warm countries come out on top when it comes to traveling in autumn and winter.
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