Switzerland Tourism To Open Regional Office To Woo More Tourists

By Yong Soo Heong KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 24 (Bernama) -- Switzerland Tourism, Switzerland's national tourist organisation, will set up a regional office in Singapore from June 1 to attract more South East Asian tourists, says its executive vice- president for Markets and MICE (meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions), Urs Eberhard. The new office would appoint a director for South East Asia who would be responsible for strengthening marketing and sales activities in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia. The office would also be supported by the Swiss embassies in the four countries, he said Friday. Eberhard, who was leading a delegation of representatives from various Swiss tour-related agencies to meet local tour agents here, said the office would also educate travel agents, undertake joint promotions, work with mainstream and social media platforms as well as implement e-marketing. Overall, he said, Switzerland Tourism expected the tourist traffic from Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia to grow to 415,000 overnight visitors by 2015. Last year, they accounted for 315,000 overnight visitors. Eberhard said Malaysian tourist arrivals in Switzerland rose by 13 per cent to 50,573 last year from 44,590 in 2010. Statistics from Switzerland Tourism showed Singapore had 109,974 tourists to Switzerland last year, a growth of 5.0 per cent from 104,563 in 2010, Indonesia saw a 46 per cent jump to 55,797 tourists from 38,327, while Thailand had 93,402 tourist arrivals, up 9.0 per cent from 85,851 in 2010. Collectively, South East Asian tourist arrivals in Switzerland had grown by 72 per cent in the last six years. Asked how this positive development came about, Eberhard said travellers to Switzerland were usually attracted by its well-known scenic alpine attractions, good system of public transport, various cultures and traditions, and a non-existent language barrier "because English is widely spoken." He said Switzerland Tourism was also planning to get repeat visitors to stay longer and travel to lesser-known but equally attractive places "where so many attractions are available within a small country." -- BERNAMA