MORE and more repeat Asian travellers to Switzerland are venturing beyond Interlaken/Jungfrau and Zermatt, which have long wooed them, into fresh fields such as Graubünden, St Moritz, Chur and Davos, which need them, according to Adrian Mueller, president of Romantik Hotels & Restaurants Switzerland.
Mueller, who owns and operates the 65-room Romantik Hotel Stern in Chur, is himself excited by the prospects of the Asian FIT market and is participating for the first time in the Switzerland Travel Mart in Zermatt this week to meet Asian buyers. The hotelier is no stranger to Asia, having spent 14 years of his career in the region, including as general manager of The Shangri-La Bangkok.
Places such as Graubünden, St Moritz, Chur and Davos have long been the playgrounds of European markets including Germany, Benelux and the UK.
“Unfortunately these are markets which reacted to the currency drop of the euro very sensitively and strongly. In Graubünden, we are talking about a drop over the past four years of between 12 per cent and 18 per cent depending on the hotel and location within the area,” said Mueller.
This is just the push factor needed for hotels, including some members of the Romantik alliance, to start tapping new markets. Many are noticing and watching the emergence of Asian FITs with interest.
Said Mueller: “Recently we had a family of 12 pax visiting us from Hong Kong. I asked them why they chose Chur and not Zermatt or Lucerne. The answer was quite simple, they had seen those already and, for the second time, wanted to see the real Switzerland. We had a fantastic evening. We explained to them all our local food specialities and they thoroughly enjoyed our local wines.”
He also had a young couple, corporate lawyers from Shanghai, who flew into Geneva and bought two bikes to explore Switzerland. “After a good meal in our 333-year-old (fully renovated) hotel, they moved on and sent me a postcard from the valley of Wallis Zermatt. That is the kind of business we would like to generate in Chur, Graubünden.
“Another newly-wed couple from India were happy when I cooked them our local specialities Indian-style, i.e. spicy. The next day I drove them in our vintage car – a Buick from 1933 – to the train station where they hopped onto the Glacier Express from Chur to Zermatt,” said Mueller.
Chur is Switzerland’s oldest city and is the starting point for the Berinan Express (train ride to Italy) and the Glacier Express from Chur to Zermatt.
“But we cannot compete with the economically run tour groups. Our goal is to excite the repeaters out of those markets to visit other parts of Switzerland as FITs. We are seeing a steady increase in the number of such clients, albeit not in big numbers yet, and want to capitalise on this segment. I am excited to be part of the Switzerland Travel Mart (September 22-23) for the first time this year. We have a good number of very interesting appointments with Asian buyers,” he said.
Asked how prepared his hotel was in catering to Asian FITs, Mueller said: “We can cater to individual Asian guests predominantly in the areas of food and, for the younger generation, services like free Wi-Fi. The hardware is ready (the hotel is fully renovated); in the long term, we need to work on the software, for example, translating guest information into Chinese, Japanese and Thai. With my 14 years of experience in Asia I will be able to train my staff and make them aware of the likes and dislikes of our guests from the Far East.”
– Read the full report in the next issue of TTG Asia Luxury, December 1
