6.1 Surveys
6.1.1 Historical considerations with regard to the tourism accommodation statistics (HESTA)
The need for tourist accommodation statistics on foreign visitors is not new. As early as 1851, surveys covering the number of tourists visiting Switzerland during the high season were planned. However, the task was postponed up to and including 1933 and left to local and private organisations. At last, on 1 November 1934, Switzerland acquired its own national tourist statistics covering all hotel establishments with more than two beds for guests and. Surveys for this statistic were carried out without fail until 2003. In May 2003, as a result of budget cuts programmed by the Federal Council, the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) announced its decision to discontinue the tourist accommodation statistic at the end of the current year.
A new survey was introduced in 2005, jointly funded by the FSO, the cantons, regions and tourism associations. The new survey was called HESTA and its purpose is to produce improved statistics with simplified content and modernised processes. It covers hotel accommodation, campsites and youth hostels.
However, the youth hostel statistics were discontinued in 2016. Establishments are included in either the hotel accommodation statistics or the supplementary accommodation statistics on the basis of criteria from the NOGA (General Classification of Economic Activities).
6.1.2 Historical considerations with regard to the supplementary accommodation statistics (PASTA)
Like the tourism accommodation statistics (HESTA), the supplementary accommodation statistics were also discontinued in 2003. The latter were reintroduced in 2016 following current methodology criteria.
In order to better comply with the quality criteria demanded by official statistics, the definition of the population has been revised and is now more precise. In contrast to the former model used up to 2003, the new survey focuses only on commercially run accommodation. Furthermore, it no longer takes into account guest rooms or long-term lets.
In addition, thanks to an annual national census, the new statistics cover the entire country whereas the former method relied on figures from a few key cantons. It is a survey based on a sample of representative units. This means that the current results are more reliable and are no longer based on estimates.
Consequently and for all the above-mentioned reasons, results from the new and former statistics stopped in 2003 can no longer be compared directly with one another.
6.1.3 Travel behaviour of the permanent Swiss resident population
The survey on the travel behaviour of the permanent Swiss resident population was conducted for the first time in 1989. It was repeated in 1998 and 2003 with a different concept and introduced in this form in 2008 as a continuous survey. In 2022, some 3000 randomly selected Swiss residents aged six and over were questioned by telephone about their personal travel activities in recent months. Up until 2011, the survey was limited to persons aged 15 and over. The questions concern the destination, type of accommodation, means of transport used, organisation of the trip, the number of overnight stays and expenditure.
A trip is defined as non-daily mobility during which a person leaves their familiar surroundings for at least three hours (day trips) and a maximum of 365 days (overnight trips). Changes of location in connection with regular and repeated (once or several times a week) activities are excluded.
A new method has been used since 2020. The figures have been recalculated from 2015 and therefore the statistics for the years 2016 to 2022 can be considered as a time series.
The individual differences mentioned in the text as statistically significant. However, due to the sample sizes, this may not apply to all differences shown in the graphs, without exception.
6.1.4 Methodological observations on the monetary tourism statistics
In recent years, the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) has produced monetary statistics for tourism, in collaboration with the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) cf. Swiss tourism satellite account, 2001 and 2005, the Swiss system of tourism satellite accounts as well as the annual indicators from the tourism satellite account – Methodology Report, FSO News, FSO, Neuchâtel, 2010 . Whereas the Tourism Satellite Account, TSA, constitutes the basic composite statistics for measuring the economic impact of tourism, the TSA’s indicators make it possible to calculate quickly and in simple form, initial estimates of the aggregates gross value added, demand and employment for the main products of tourism.
The tourism satellite account only deals with direct value added and not with so-called indirect value added. Value added is the gross production value less intermediate consumption. Direct value added is the value added generated during the production of products which are used directly in tourism (e. g. tourist use of cable cars and other aerial tramway systems). Indirect added value, in contrast, measures the added value generated by the production of goods and services necessary in order to obtain tourist products (e. g. the production of cables used for cable cars).
6.2 Dissemination of data
Provisional data on hotel accommodation are published monthly by means of a press release or newsmail and appear online 25 working days after the month under review. Final figures for the year that has just finished are also published at the start of the following year. Provisional data on supplementary accommodation (holiday homes, collective accommodation and campsites) are published on a quarterly basis in an online newsmail. Definitive annual data appear in a press release and online. Although data on campsites is collected as part of the hotel accommodation survey, they are published together with information on supplementary accommodation. The survey on the travel behaviour of the Swiss population is carried out over a whole year and the results are published annually. The tourism satellite account’s annual indicators are also published once a year.
6.3 Symbols used in the charts
() figure not indicated due to lack of statistical reliability
(e) figure based on estimated data
(d) figure based on definitive data
(p) figure based on provisional data
... figure not indicated due to lack of relevance or availability
x figure not indicated due to data protection
Due to rounding up or down, totals may differ from the absolute figures indicated in the tables and charts and may not add up to 100%.