If the Swiss Travel Industry is Changing Positively, Others Will Follow

The Swiss Travel Federation General Meeting in Madeira

Who is behind the very lively Swiss travel industry?

As a blogger, I can tell you that everybody wants to have Swiss tourists. They spend money, behave well, don’t pollute, and often come back. I regularly receive requests to advertise something to my Swiss readers, so when I was invited to Madeira for the Swiss Travel Federation General Meeting (SRV, Schweizer Reise-Verband), I knew that locals would treat us like Royalty. And they did!

Who, and Why

The SRV is an umbrella association under which one can find all the relevant players in Swiss traveling. For their meeting – which is once a year, and always in a different location –  about 180 people joined. They were Travel Agencies, management, Airline representatives and the like.

The reason for traveling to Madeira were:

• Having a cool holiday (that’s always a non-written rule, of course!)
• Voting
• Networking, getting new ideas
• Discussing some of the hot topics of this fast changing industry and, in particular, overtourism

Overtourism

This was the main topic during the panel discussion. A new format, copied from the popular TV program “Arena”, allowed guests to present their opinion,  to be asked questions or contradicted. Personally I was invited as a blogger and influencer, since one of the reasons why places become too popular is often that some online posts go viral on social media. So I was representing a very criticised category, even though everybody was quite nice to me.

My Take

I felt there was a bit too much theory at the beginning, especially when Beatrix Morath gave an introduction and explanation which I thought most people knew already. After all, almost all guests are always in direct contact with clients and destinations, therefore they perfectly know what overtourism is.

The discussion got heated for the next steps: who is guilty, and what are the solutions?

Just quickly about the guilty ones: in my opinion, when you can’t find a single bad guy, probably there are many.

• Bloggers are indeed guilty (but they don’t count as much as the algorithms, which are becoming more and more aggressive by the day. What do I mean? That negative or bad content is pushed, and good content is often almost blocked by social media. Our information is greatly distorted).
• Tourists are too, especially when travelling really cheaply, or with no real interest in the place, nor preparation
• Airbnb has lost its initial spirit of sharing something with locals, and it’s often just a cash cow (even though it depends, for example “rooms” or “airbnb experiences” still bring business to real locals)
• Cruises are another cause of excessive crowds
• Politics is guilty too – as usual. But here are the good news: it is so bad, that it can be greatly improved…

Solutions

Filipe Silva, Senior Director at Visit Portugal (for my American readers: Madeira is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean that belongs to Portugal) had already said, in the morning, that overtourism in the region isn’t that big of a problem, and can be more or less solved by working together with local politicians and administrators. Roland Bachmeier, a tourist expert living in the island, said almost the opposite, and talked for example about high property prices now too expensive for locals, and about the huge amount of tourists coming from cruises (if there are four of them on the port, we are talking about 10k people). Maybe, he and other people suggested, we could have smaller boats, higher prices, and better quality.

To that, a tour operator from the audience said that this is unrealistic, because many people can’t afford anything better, and, if proposed something more expensive, would book something very cheap somewhere else, anyway.

Well, this is exactly the wrong attitude, in my opinion. Especially from a tour operator, that is trusted by its clients, and should provide a real service.

Real service is not about judging. It is informing and presenting options, and maybe giving in most of the times. But maybe selling a better holiday once in a while. Some destinations can be cheaper too, because they are in different areas. So it’s not about going against the client, but about giving them something to think about.

To me, this is the same concept as fast fashion: ok, some people only look at the price. But other ones, when offered other options like renting a dress or buying second-hand, or using again their own clothes in a new way, can decide to do it. Change is done one step at a time.

So guess what: we can also decide to have one holiday less, or one t-shirt less, and a better one.

Mamma, don’t get too stressed…

One of my daughters told me one day, as I was complaining about not finding local and sustainable food in the supermarket.

If everybody does something little every day, to improve, it helps the world  much more than one person, doing everything perfect. 

Do listen to the young generations. And simply try to improve – nobody wants you to stop selling.

Other solutions that came up during the discussion, also by the audience:

• Tourists, locals, politicians should work together
• Informing your clients and preparing them does help to create a better trip
• Spreading the offer by presenting different options also has a positive effect
• Media should be read better and with more critical spirit. For example, understanding that a protest or negative episode gets clicked or talked about much more than positive content. This is ultimately a money making strategy. In my opinion, media and their impact should be studied from primary school

The discussion gave me some food for thought.

Many people of the audience didn’t really raise their hand or say anything, but had very interesting points to make later, while chatting or having a drink. This is a typical Swiss phenomenon: being reserved, but knowing more than one would expect. That’s why I think it was really useful to spend some time together, socially, after the speeches. We kept talking and making comments. I think we all went home with some new ideas.

Originally, I come from a touristic port in Tuscany and have worked with tourism until I finished university, so this is a subject I care about, not only because of my current job.

And even though Switzerland is small, and the West is not the entire world, I do believe that we Europeans can really help to improve tourism.

Switzerland is strategically positioned, is a leader of innovation, and, as I wrote at the beginning, has some money to spend. Let’s use this opportunity to try to improve things, one tour operator at a time, one tourist at a time, and yes, one influencer at a time. Improving is possible, and more people will follow.