Towards a drop in overnight stays in Valais due to bad weather? We discuss it with Damian Constantin, director of Promotion Valais.keystone (montage)
The Alps were hit by heavy rain this weekend. The toll is heavy and there are deaths. But another victim may have been forgotten: tourism. For the Valais tourism sector in particular, summer 2024 is off to a rather bad start.
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The weather in 2024 will have disappointed the Swiss much more than the performance of the Nati at the Euro. The weeks of rain will have culminated in episodes of disastrous precipitation, particularly in Valais and Ticino, where several people died in devastating bad weather.
But another victim looms on the horizon, less visible in the surrounding chaos: tourism. In Valais in particular, if hoteliers had recovered since Covid, the poor conditions of summer 2024 risk once again pushing them into a dark period.
Bad weather is an obvious threat to Alpine settlements. But floods and other landslides are even less likely to reassure vacationers. “The first feedback we have indicates that the weather and the news have an impact on tourist numbers,” indicates Damian Constantin, director of Valais Wallis Promotion, a Valais promotion body which deals, among other things, with tourism.
“The Swiss clientele is the most important in summer in Valais and is influenced by the weather”
Damian Constantin, Valais/Wallis Promotion
“In the summer, reservations tend to be made by the Swiss and are usually made within shorter deadlines,” explains Damian Constantin. The weather therefore plays an important role. But the exact figures for the number of nights always arrive two months apart from the Federal Statistical Office.
