In 2022, 88% of Switzerland’s population made at least one trip abroad which included an overnight stay of one night or more, reported the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) this week.
Last year, Swiss residents made an average of 8 day trips and 2.6 trips with overnight stays, an increase of nearly 30% compared to the year before.
In total, there were 21.1 million trips in 2022. However, total trips were still below the 21.9 million trips made in 2019 before the Covid-19 pandemic. Trips abroad were down 11% from their pre-pandemic level. 12.5 million such trips were made in 2022, compared to 14.1 million in 2019.
In 2022, German-speakers were more avid travellers than French- or Italian-speakers. An average German-speaker went on 3.0 trips with overnight stays in 2022. French- (1.9) and Italian-speakers (1.4) were well behind their German speaking compatriots.
Trips with overnight stays were heavily skewed towards travel abroad. Only 40% of such trips were undertaken in Switzerland. However, short day trips were overwhelmingly Swiss based (92%).
Most travel abroad was in Europe. Only 4% of travel abroad was outside Europe. The most popular European destinations were Italy (13%), Germany (10%) and France (8%).
Holiday and recreation were the reasons for two thirds of overnight trips, up 89% from 2021. Another quarter of these trips were to visit friends or relatives. Business trips accounted for only 4% of overnight stays in 2022.
The most popular mode of travel was the private car. 56% of trips were principally undertaken in private cars, 20% mainly on public land-based transport, 22% principally by plane and 2% using some other form of transport. Compared to 2021, the use of private vehicles (+15%), public transport (+59%) and aircraft (+74%) were all higher.
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