Number of overnight stays in canton down by 11% in 2016

According to the Zug Tourist Board (ZT), 290,642 overnight stays were recorded over the course of 2016, down by 11.2% on the previous year. The biggest fall in numbers occurred in June, when 29,613 overnight stays were recorded, compared with 35,377 in the same month of 2015. There was also a fall in the number of overnight stays in August and December, by 14.1% in fact. The fewest overnights stays were recorded in the last month of the year, too, when there were just 17,828. Most were recorded in July, with 30,076. ZT also confirmed that the declining numbers were evident in most municipalities, with just Menzingen, Risch and Neuheim able to look back on an encouraging year in this regard.
 
Seraina Koller, the managing director of ZT, explained that, unlike 2016, there had been a lot of major events taking place in the canton in 2015, for example the Street Hockey World Championships and the Under-18 Ice-hockey World Championships. Furthermore, the Hotel Aesch in Walchwil closed and the Hotel Ländli in Oberägeri had not been able to let out all its rooms because of renovation.
 
As across Switzerland in general, there were also fewer visitors from China, their numbers down by 15,822 overnight stays, or 57%. It is thought may have been caused by the cooling off of the Chinese economy, new regulations with regard to visas and the fear of terrorism.
 
Not that just foreign visitors stayed away; there were also fewer overnight stays by Swiss nationals to the canton, down by 14,083 in fact. Nevertheless, the Swiss still make up the largest group of visitors here, making up 46% of all of them. What was encouraging to note was the increase in the number of overnight stays by visitors from the United States, Austria and Russia.
 
Despite this fall in numbers overall, the pictures is not as black as it may be perceived, with hoteliers reporting their regular business clients continuing to come.
 
Over the course of last year, ZT concentrated more on attracting tourists from German-speaking Europe, but now potential visitors from the United Kingdom are to be targeted. Indeed, to this end, a most impressive new promotional film of the canton has been made. See the article on our Panorama page for more details.