SWISS CITY TOURISM CONTINUES TO GROW BUT BARCELONA IS ON TOP

Barcelona is the most successful city destination in Europe. This is the finding of the research company Bakbasel and their index of the top city destinations in Europe.

According to the “Bak Index 2014”, in terms of city tourism, Barcelona, Florence, and Munich are the most successful European city destinations. Prague in the Czech Republic and Swiss Geneva are also among the top 5 city destinations.

The analysis made as a part of a specialized research on seasonality and demand in Switzerland showed that the seasonal fluctuations of 2014 in Swiss cities were the lowest in Geneva and Basel. It also revealed that seasonality is a much larger factor in international demand compared to domestic city tourism.

Switzerland’s city tourism already significantly expanded in 2013 and presented a similar increase of demand in 2014. Nevertheless, its market share slightly decreased due to the push of other international tourist destinations.

After a tangible expansion of city tourism in 2013 with an overnight stay surplus of 3.2, 2014 displayed a similarly high growth (+3.1%). In spite of this, Switzerland’s city tourism lost a small portion of market share, simply due to the reason that other international cities were able to increase their numbers even more (+3.7%).

The demand for tourist services was exposed to more or less strong fluctuations. Destinations with a balanced demand throughout the year tend to have the advantage of a higher average capacity than cities with unstable demand.

This examination for seasonality showed that hotel overnight stays in Basel and Geneva had the lowest seasonal fluctuations in 2014 – despite the fact that seasonality is strongly affected by variations in durations of stay. Basel benefits from its multitude of trade fairs and congresses which take place during the entire year. In Geneva, the international organizations facilitate a balanced demand.

Bak Top Index: