Switzerland tourism to expand network in India



He is not fond of figures and statistics. He is a different personality. Diplomat he is, but loves artistic things in life. Music and painting are his passion. Earlier it was the trumpet and now he prefers to play the melody on the flugelhorn. This is when he gets time off from his busy schedule as the Ambassador of Switzerland in India. Mr. Philippe Welti has still hidden his paintings which he has made in his free time. He speaks to THE BLUE MOON Editor Amit Mittal on tourism and much more. Some excerpts:

“Switzerland Tourism has now decided to be more present in the Indian market keeping in mind the enormous interest of Indian tourists for this holiday destination – it will now have a Swiss national based in India and will be expanding the Switzerland Tourism offices in India in both New Delhi and Mumbai. Indians are a great lover of the Swiss Travel System - they rank number three in the overseas market, after the US and UK in buying Swiss Travel Passes. They also appreciate and like to travel on the scenic routes especially Golden Pass Express and the Glacier Express.”

Switzerland has long been a favourite among Indian tourists, often the rich have chosen the destination for a honeymoon. The numbers have always swelled. Film makers from India have targetted the Alps for their romantic productions. But there seems to be a downward trend in the number of Indian visitors to Switzerland. The aggressive marketing aimed at promoting tourist traffic to Switzerland from India proves that the country is keen to maintain its inflow from India.
 

“Indian tourists have spent 2,84,390 room nights in 2006 and 3,36, 966 room nights in the year 2007 which amounts to an average of 16% annual growth. The figure in 2008 was 327,300 nights which was a negative growth (-2.9%) for the first time in 12 years. This was due to the Euro Cup Football championships co-hosted by Switzerland in June 2008 leading to a shortage of rooms in India's peak travelling season. Almost 60% of the Indian tourists are travelling to Switzerland in the months of May and June. Indians also like to stay in serviced apartments but these figures are not included in the above. There would be an additional 200,000 overnights which are spent by Indians in Switzerland last year.” It is often said that Switzerland is very expensive for Indian tourist in comparison to US, UK, France or Germany. However, statistics give another story.

“Indians spend around CHF (Swiss franc) 250 per head per night in Switzerland and have an average length of stay of 2.5 nights.The favourite destinations of Indians in Switzerland are Engelberg, Lucerne, Interlaken, Zurich and Geneva. Mount Titlis and Mount Jungfrau are the most favoured mountain excursions since they have snow throughout the year. In recent years, travellers have also started visiting places like Zermatt, St. Moritz and Lausanne/Montreux.” English is not the national language of Switzerland. A large number of people there speak German. Still language does not seem to be a hurdle in the growth of tourism from India.

“Language is not normally a hurdle in Switzerland as most people, especially in the tourism sector speak English.”

With Switzerland joining the Schengen, there have been apprehensions that getting a visa from Swiss Embassy would become tedious and stricter than before.

“End of 2008, Switzerland has joined the Schengen Area. This is an additional advantage for tourists who want to travel in Europe. Switzerland has been now a part of the Schengen Area since 12 December 2008. A Schengen visa allows Indian Nationals to travel freely within the 21 Schengen countries from this date onwards. Visa formalities are harmonized with the other Schengen countries. The Visa requirements for obtaining a Schengen Visa are the same for all the Member States. A travel insurance (with a minimum coverage of Euro 30,000.-), 2 passport size pictures and the new visa fee of Euro 60.- are the additional requirements which have been implemented since Switzerland joined the Schengen Area.”

Many European countries have faced problems with Indian tourists staying back illegally.

“Indian tourists are not known for staying back in Switzerland illegally. The screening of travel intentions which goes with the issuance of visas seems to be appropriate, effective and sufficient.”

Except for SWISSAIR, which is now managed by Lufthansa, Switzerland does not have any airline to directly connect to India.

“Swiss International is a separate and autonomous airline in the Lufthansa group. Swiss International Air Lines continues to be a very important partner of Switzerland and is instrumental in promoting Switzerland as a holiday and business destination worldwide.” Switzerland has good number of higher education universities, but there seems to be lack of awareness among Indian students about it.
 


“Switzerland is an education and science hub of the highest level. It has outstanding universities with numerous programs, a thriving private sector which encourages research & development and conducts its own cutting-edge research. Moreover, education here is relatively inexpensive and increasingly provided in English. Postgraduate opportunities are plentiful because of the dynamic Swiss economy and its access to the European market and larger world market. Excellent infrastructure, safety, political and economic stability are all good reasons making Switzerland a privileged place to study and conduct research. Switzerland has 12 doctoral degree-granting research universities offering a wide range of first rate educational opportunities to international students. The two federal institutes of technology are world leaders in science and engineering education and research. Both have numerous collaborations with Indian Institutes of Technology.”

While Indian students make a bee line for other western nations for higher education, they overlook the special schemes for them offered by Swiss universities.

“India has become now a ‘priority country’ in terms of scholarships granted by the Swiss government to Indian students to pursue their higher education at Swiss universities.Switzerland is also home to several excellent private institutions in specific domains. It attracts students from all over the world to attend business or hotel and tourism management school. The Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne – the oldest and most renowned hospitality school in the world-- stands for the excellence of the education in Switzerland.”

Tourism, trade and business cannot be alieniated from each other. Tourism promotes trade and vice versa. This has happened in case of Swiss companies too, who have a good investment in India.

“Swiss companies have been actively involved in India for the past many decades. Currently, about 150 Swiss companies are operating through joint ventures or subsidiaries in India. Switzerland is ranked as the 11th largest foreign investor in India. The major share of Swiss direct investments has gone into sectors like engineering and industrial equipment, textiles, services, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, and precision instruments. Remarkably, the Swiss technology-driven companies, including small and medium businesses, do play a big role in the trade and investment flows to India.”

Trade between India and Switzerland is growing. Swiss watches are well known name in Indian households. Medicines from Swiss pharmaceutical companies are also in strong presence in India.

“The Swiss-Indian trade and economic ties have been growing from strength to strength. The buoyancy of the two economies in the previous years has resulted, inter alia, in the continued expansion of the bilateral trade flows. The two-way trade expanded from CHF 1.56 billion in 2004 to CHF 3.50 billion in 2008, reflecting an increase of 125% in four years. The machinery, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, precision instruments, precious metals, jewellery, and watches account for the major share of Swiss exports to India, whereas chemicals, precious stones and jewellery, textiles, and agricultural products are the major products being imported by Switzerland from India.”

Business is no one way stream. If Swiss companies are showing strong presence in India, Indian companies and investors are not far behind.

“Switzerland has one of the most liberal and competitive economies in the world, and it has been amongst the preferred destinations for foreign investors due to many advantages that it offers to them. Be it an important geo-strategic location in the centre of Europe, long-term stability, legal security, dedicated professional labour force, liberal market conditions, reliable and highly developed financial centre, high-tech infrastructure, or modest tax system, Switzerland offers all of these. Not only some big Indian IT companies such as Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Wipro, Satyam and Polaris are having their offices in Switzerland, but companies like Apollo Tyres, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals and Wockhardt have also invested in our country.”

Switzerland has been a major exporter of precision machinery, but east Asian countries have been flooding the market with cheaper machinery. However, the Swiss machinery makers are comfortable. They have reasons for that.

“As more and more Indian companies are becoming aware about the challenges and opportunities of globalisation of businesses, they are moving towards making the domestic industry scale up the quality norms. Hence, the need for state-of-the-art technologies is also rising in India. Take an example of textile manufacturers in India, the trend is to adopt modern textile machinery, which may be expensive, in order to meet high quality standards existing in the big markets worldwide.”
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