Tag Archives: Switzerland Tourism

Switzerland Tourism invites members of India’s travel trade to participate in its exclusive webinar series. The webinar series aims to educate the trade about one of the most popular travel destination for Indian travellers – Switzerland. Those interested can get in touch with  Jaspreet Kaur  via email at jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com  or call  9650196532. This webinar that will take place on March 5, 2020 at 3:00 pm will highlight the summer attractions in Lucerne.  Lucerne is a city in Central Switzerland situated on the Lake Lucerne and surrounded by mountains. It is a popular destination for travellers and has numerous attractions and accommodation options in and around it. Viewers get a chance to learn about the various offerings in Lucerne in the summer months so that they can plan their clients’ itineraries accordingly. Travel partners who attend all the webinars also stand a chance of winning a trip to Switzerland.

Switzerland Tourism invites members of India’s travel trade to participate in its exclusive webinar series. The webinar series aims to educate the trade about the most sought-after destinations, activities and attractions in Switzerland and share news and updates that are important for their clients. The webinar scheduled on Monday, 17th February, 2020 at 2:30 pm IST will highlight the Swiss Travel System and its products. Viewers get a chance to learn about one of the most efficient transportation networks in the world, as well as the popular Swiss Travel Pass, an all-in-one ticket offering travellers unlimited travel by train, bus and boat including panoramic routes. Travel partners who attend all the webinars also stand a chance of winning a trip to Switzerland. Lyandra D’Souza, Sales & Marketing Manager India – Swiss Travel System, says, “Through our webinar today, the travel trade across India will have the opportunity to learn about the Swiss Travel System products, offerings and benefits for 2020. Additionally, our goal is to give the trade the knowledge and tools to sell the Swiss Travel Pass and to inspire them to develop new package ideas centered around the public transport network in Switzerland. The Indian market is vitally important for Swiss Travel System and we are looking forward to working together with our trade partners to inspire more Indians to travel by public transport in Switzerland for the upcoming summer travel season.” Those who are interested in participating can get in touch with Jaspreet Kaur for further information either via email jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com or call +91-9650196532.  

Switzerland witnessed a 23.4 per cent increase in the overnights spent by Indians in Switzerland in 2017. Indian tourists are increasingly looking at Switzerland as a travel destination because of the plethora of options it offers to each traveller. In order to showcase these diverse options, Switzerland Tourism has taken its multiple offerings across Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata and Delhi through its recently-concluded annual roadshow. Switzerland’s increasing number of Indian overnights can be attributed to Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh coming on board as the brand ambassador. “This year has also been a very exciting one for Switzerland Tourism with Ranveer Singh continuing as our brand ambassador. He has showcased Switzerland in a very attractive and diverse light, be it adventure, sports, culture, food, new destinations or experiences. Each year, we see a growing interest among Indian travellers but 2017, thanks to Ranveer, the overnights have been extremely high. Our numbers this year are also encouraging – we are up 10 per cent in hotel overnights in the period January to August 2018 as compared to the same period last year. Besides this campaign, we also continue our travel trade campaigns – with regular webinars, training sessions in tier two and tier three cities as well our new e-learning modules on the Switzerland Travel Academy,” said Claudio Zemp, Director–India, Switzerland Tourism. The roadshows in all the four cities had a B2B session where Indian travel agents met and discussed business prospects and ideas with the Swiss delegation.

The 26th IT&CM Asia and 21st CTW Asia-Pacific kicked off in Bangkok, Thailand and welcomed some 3,000 delegates, including over 500 hosted buyers and media, from more than 50 territories and countries. Over 50 industry thought-leaders from government bodies, related associations, corporate organisations and industry professions delivered knowledge sessions. The main keynote presented by Martin Nydegger, CEO, Switzerland Tourism; Oscar Cerezales, COO, MCI Asia-Pacific; Nichapa Yoswee, Senior Vice President – Business, Thailand Convention & Exhibition Bureau (TCEB); and Daniel Chua, Vice President – Meetings & Incentives, Singapore Associations of Conventions and Exhibition Organisers (SACEOS), set the tone towards the transformation of audience engagement as the demand to stand out and being top-of-mind becomes more competitive. TCEB hosted the Official Opening Ceremony & Welcome Reception themed ‘Thailand Limited’ that rounded off Day 1 of activities at the GMM Live House at CentralWorld, featuring a colourful night of uniquely Thai entertainment, local cuisine and hospitality.  

Switzerland Tourism has introduced its global e-learning programme created for travel agents to sell the destination in the India market. This was launched in January this year and its India-specific programme created especially for this market was discontinued. Speaking about the decision behind this development, Claudio Zemp, Director – India, Switzerland Tourism, says, “We are very proud to introduce our new e-learning programme – the Switzerland Travel Academy – in India. This is a global programme for travel agents all over the world and is now also available for the Indian agents. We observed that the demand and the requirements from the India market as well as the knowledge about the destination were fast evolving and for that reason we have now started using the same e-learning programme for India.” The NTO recently did a series of four webinars this year that got overwhelming response with about 600 people joining each webinar. The numbers are also good, as Zemp reveals. “We had an increase of 23.4 per cent in terms of tourists generated out of India in 2017 over the previous year. The first three months of 2018 saw an increase of 16.4 per cent over the previous year during the same period, which is traditionally not a busy season for us,” he says.  

Trafalgar will host its inaugural Trafalgar Europe Britain Day as part of its efforts to provide agents a way to learn about travel destinations in Europe and Britain like an insider. It will partner with four European tourism offices in this first-of-its kind showcase exclusively for the trade in India. Atout France, Tourism Ireland, Tourism Office of Spain and Switzerland Tourism together with Trafalgar will present the iconic sites of the respective countries. Trafalgar’s ‘Insider Sessions’ will take place on February 7 in Mumbai and on February 9 in Bengaluru. Nicholas Lim, President, Trafalgar, Asia, says, “We want to help agents to grow their business by showcasing the diversity of Europe and the opportunities around it. We’re delighted to launch our Insider Sessions and in 2018, it’s time to travel to Europe with Trafalgar and live The Good Life. Agents who participate in these sessions will be eligible to win a grand prize of a nine-day ‘Spanish Experience’ holiday sponsored by Trafalgar. There will be two grand prizes given away – one for each city.”

Actor Ranveer Singh as Switzerland’s ambassador in India, has managed to drive a 25 per cent growth rate in overnights in the Alpine nation. Martin Nydegger, the newly appointed CEO of Switzerland Tourism, says, “We couldn’t be luckier to have Ranveer Singh as our country ambassador. He has really boosted the image of Switzerland in terms of tourism to make it younger, fresher, exciting and active. This is exactly how we want to position Switzerland in future to place it as the most desirable outdoor destination and he is helping us in doing just that.” “We are very happy to extend and continue with Ranveer Singh in 2018 and we are very much looking forward to that. We would always welcome all the production companies, stars and all the whole of Bollywood industry to continue shooting in Switzerland,” Nydegger added.    

Switzerland Tourism, in an effort to catalyse tourism development across India, has introduced several new attractions, experiences and activities for both popular and lesser known destinations in Switzerland. The recently conducted annual roadshow in India across cities of Mumbai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Chennai and Delhi witnessed over 900 participants from the travel and tourism trade industry. A special B2B session was held in each city allowing the Indian travel agents to meet and discusses business prospects with the Swiss delegations. Claudio Zemp, Director – India, Switzerland Tourism, said, “This year has been a remarkable year for Switzerland Tourism with Ranveer Singh coming on board and promoting the destination with his charm, unmatched energy and fun personality which thoroughly matches the image Switzerland Tourism wanted to portray. In terms of growth from India, we had a fantastic year with a year to date growth of 25.1 per cent more overnights. We are thankful to our partners for their continued support and we hope that we welcome more tourists for the upcoming season.” Ritu Sharma, Deputy Director, Switzerland Tourism, India, says, “In the past few years, Switzerland tourism has upped the ante to attract more tourists from India. Apart from the key metros, we are also penetrating into Tier I & II cities by conducting training sessions in these markets to ensure that the travel trade is well equipped to answer queries relating to our offerings.” ­­­­­­

Switzerland has created a single platform in Mumbai to represent key Swiss interests in diplomacy, trade and investment as well as tourism, along with the continuation of providing consular services to Swiss citizens. The new and integrated set-up located in Nariman Point is considered as a milestone for Switzerland’s presence in India’s financial capital. In February 2016, the visa section in Mumbai was closed and visa processing within India was centralised at the Embassy in New Delhi. Subsequently, the Consulate General was reorganised internally with allocation of additional resources to the culture and public diplomacy department within the new scope of activities. The renovation of the offices began simultaneously. After completion of the remodeling, the Swiss Business Hub India and Switzerland Tourism have come under the single roof of the Consulate General. The grand opening of the new state-of-the-art offices took place on 26 May, 2017. Consul General Martin Bienz welcomed Ambassador Jacques Pitteloud, Director, Directorate for Resources, Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Andreas Baum, Ambassador of Switzerland to India, Daniel Küng, CEO of Switzerland Global Enterprise, Jodok Brunner, BBL at the ribbon-cutting ceremony of the new premises. The celebrations continued in the evening at the Trident Hotel followed by a music programme by musicians Sanjay Divecha and Varun Venkit. Ambassador Andreas Baum announced the new public diplomacy campaign for 2017-2018 which will be ‘70 years of Swiss-Indian Friendship, Connecting Minds Inspiring the Future’. The gala reception was attended by representatives from the diplomatic, business and culture communities in Mumbai. The Consulate General of Switzerland in Mumbai was the leading visa-issuing office within the Swiss network abroad, providing up to 80,000 visas per year.

Switzerland Tourism announced the launch of its winter campaign for 2016 and ‘Nature wants you back’ campaign for summer 2017. The campaign was launched in presence of the tourism partners of Switzerland – Davos Klosters, Bernina Express, St Moritz and Glacier Express, hopes to further increase and sustain the double digit growth of 16% seen in 2015-2016. With an initial focus on the winter tourist, Switzerland Tourism will showcase the multiple options like skiing, sledging and snowboarding for the active traveller and Christmas markets, open air hot springs and igloo stays for the more relaxed visitor looking for pure white relaxation in winter. The summer focus for the campaign too will be packed with an array of activities such as sky-diving, wakeboarding, canyoning, etc. combined with Switzerland’s best touristic and nature highlights. Claudio Zemp, Director – India, Switzerland Tourism, said, “In India we see people getting more adventurous these days. They do not only want to take a cable car up a mountain and take pictures but also want that thrill and rush which one gets while doing adventure sports. With a versatile and energetic personality like Ranveer Singh on board, we would like to showcase that Switzerland is not only about scenic beauty but also has many activities and adventures to offer to the more experiential Indian traveller. Winter is coming up and is an absolutely beautiful time to visit Switzerland. One can enjoy various winter activities and explore their hidden passion for adventure with sports such as skiing, snow-shoe trekking, tobogganing. Ranveer’s next trip is going to be in winter.” Ritu Sharma, Deputy Director, Switzerland Tourism India, said, “Our new campaign is all about telling people that holidays …