Hotel occupancy in Switzerland rose during the summer season. Between May and the end of October, the number of overnight stays reached a record level of 24.4 million, 1.6% up on the same period last year, thanks to foreign demand. + Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox With an increase of 3.9% to 13 million overnight stays, foreign demand outstripped domestic demand, which fell by 0.8% to 11.4 million during the summer season, according to provisional figures from the Swiss Federal Statistical Office (FSO) published on Thursday. Foreign demand even exceeded that recorded in summer 2019 by 1.2%. Americans accounted for a large proportion of this demand, with a 13.5% increase to 3 million overnight stays, marking the best result since 1985. The guests from Asia also posted a strong increase to 2.9 million (+5.9%). Only European demand declined by 0.4% to 6.6 million. The tourist season was marked by severe weather, particularly in the mountains and in Ticino.
