MATCHING PRIORITIES

Entrepreneurship & digital transformation

The Confederation’s tourism policy aims to help the Swiss tourism industry make the most of the opportunities presented by the digital economy. The plan is to increase the support provided to the tourism industry in the digital transformation of its business models and processes. It should also aid in the digital transformation of tourism market development activities.

• Supporting Switzerland in the enhancement of its tourism segments of interest through capacity building activities.
• Increasing participation in UNWTO Start-up Competitions, the world’s largest start-up competitions in tourism.
• Fostering participation in the UNWTO Digital Futures programme, that seeks to accelerate economic recovery of the tourism sector by scaling up innovative SMEs, unleashing digital technologies to create jobs and enhance future resilience in the linkages of the tourism value chain post COVID-19.
• Organization of Masterclasses focused on digital skills in collaboration with Amadeus, (better data analysis for better decision-making), Google and other global partners.

Sustainable tourism

According to the Tourism Strategy of the Swiss Confederation, the guidelines and objectives of the Swiss Federal Council’s current sustainable development strategy are to be taken into consideration when implementing the Confederation’s tourism policy. One of the priorities is ‘economic performance’ as a dimension of sustainability. Another key dimension is to ensure that the measures implemented under the Confederation’s tourism policy contribute to meeting the targets of the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

• Engaging in different initiatives of the One Planet Sustainable Tourism Programme:
  • Global Tourism Plastics Initiative unites the tourism sector behind a common vision to address the root causes of plastic pollution. It enables businesses, governments, and other tourism stakeholders to lead by example in the shift towards a circular economy of plastics.
  • Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism aims to raise the climate ambition of tourism stakeholders and secure strong actions to support the global commitment to have emissions by 2030 and reach Net Zero as soon as possible before 2050.
• Possible establishment of an observatory for the UNWTO International Network of Sustainable Tourism Observatories, monitoring sustainable tourism development at destination level.
• Ongoing process of development of a new standard in tourism, materialized in the Statistical Framework for Measuring the Sustainability of Tourism (MST), which takes into consideration the economic, social, and environmental dimensions of tourism.

Enhancement of key tourism segments & promotion

As the attractiveness of tourism offerings and the market presence of Switzerland as a tourist destination are interlinked, they are treated as a single objective. The focus is on the development of investment incentives, and the exploitation of the momentum provided by major events – e.g. Winter Olympics, other major sporting events, and high-profile exhibitions, such as the Swiss or World Expo – being hosted in Switzerland. The objectives are interrelated.

• UNWTO Rural Tourism Development Programme - Best Tourism Villages by UNWTO: In 2021, Valposchiavo, Saas Fee and Gruyères received the label, followed by Andermatt and Murten in 2022.

Human resources development

UNWTO aims to scale-up education for supporting added value jobs worldwide.

• Training and education:
  • UNWTO Tourism Online Academy: scholarships granted to member states annually.
  • UNWTO TedQual: Quality Assurance for Tourism Education, Training and Research Programmes.
  • UNWTO Students’ League: initiative that supports country's young people in their preparation and engagement to help shape a better world. Switzerland organized a national Students' League in 2022.
  • UNWTO international internship programme
• Youth Empowerment:
  • Global Youth Tourism Summit 2022: Switzerland was represented by 1 participant.

Tourism Strategy of the Swiss Confederation

The Federal Government Tourism Strategy, adopted in 2021, retains the objectives of the previous Tourism Strategy:

1. Improving framework conditions, including improving knowledge transfer, achieving a tourism-friendly regulatory environment and making international cooperation more systematic.
2. Promoting entrepreneurship with a focus on supporting structural change in the tourism industry, enhancing strategic capabilities and strategy orientation of tourism actors, and tapping into the potential of the tourism labour market.
3. Supporting sustainable development by preserving and valorizing architectural heritage, landscape quality and biodiversity, adapting to climate change and supporting the implementation of "Swisstainable".
4. Exploiting the opportunities presented by digitalisation, including advancing the digital transformation and knowledge transfer, generating value added from the use of data and statistics and ensuring the strategic digitalisation issues are monitored.
5. Enhancing the appeal of tourism offerings and Switzerland's market presence, by helping maintain competitive tourism infrastructures, increasing convenience and quality for guests and supporting the revistalization of city and business tourism.