Market – USA

The 17 team members based in the US work primarily out of New York, with each a media and trade representative on the West Coast, based in Los Angeles and San Francisco. 

Campaigning and Activation

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	Vanessa Zwinselman, Head of Campaigning & Activation North America
Contact LinkedIn	+1 646 239 6659 vanessa.zwinselman@switzerland.com www.linkedin.com/in/vanessa-zwinselman-b26b4563/

	Cristina Stadelmann, Project Manager Marketing
Contact LinkedIn	+1 646-760-0830 cristina.stadelmann@switzerland.com www.linkedin.com/in/cristina-stadelmann/

Trade

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	Oliver Weibel, Head of Trade Relations North America
Contact LinkedIn	+1 416-695-3496 oliver.weibel@switzerland.com www.linkedin.com/in/oliver-weibel-91352628/

	Oliver Guggisberg, District Manager Western USA
Contact LinkedIn	+1 415-738-6033 oliver.guggisberg@switzerland.com www.linkedin.com/in/guggisberg-oliver-a7984b57/

	Florin Eggenberger, Trade Relations Manager Eastern USA
Contact LinkedIn	+1 646-760-0839 florin.eggenberger@switzerland.com www.linkedin.com/in/florin-eggenberger-883042b0/

	Stefanie Dosch, Project Manager Trade Relations North America
Contact LinkedIn	+1 646-760-0840 stefanie.dosch@switzerland.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/stefanie-rose-d-527863162/

Media

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	Divine Bonga, Head of Media and Communications North America
Contact LinkedIn	+1 646-760-0835 divine.bonga@switzerland.com www.linkedin.com/in/divine-bonga-7a39682/

	Fabio Zurmühle, Social Media & Media Relations Manager
Contact LinkedIn	+1 646-760-0829 fabio.zurmuehle@switzerland.com www.linkedin.com/in/fabio-zurm%C3%BChle-795880204/

	Manuela Hess, Media Relations Manager Western USA
Contact LinkedIn	+1 213-325-3252 manuela.hess@switzerland.com www.linkedin.com/in/manuela-hess/

SCIB

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	Caroline Pidroni, Head of SCIB North America
Contact LinkedIn	+1 646-760-0836 caroline.pidroni@switzerland.com www.linkedin.com/in/carolinepidroni/

	Fabia Imhof, Project Manager SCIB
Contact LinkedIn	+1 646-760-0837 fabia.imhof@switzerland.com www.linkedin.com/in/fabia-imhof-343471187/

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Office Manager

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	Claudia Sayangi, Office Manager NYC
Contact LinkedIn	+1 646-760-0827 claudia.sayangi@switzerland.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/claudia-sayangi-a8a27412b/

• ST market research page –– here
• ST Research Report 2023 –– Download here
• ST TMS 2017 –– Download here

Click here for an overview slide for each finalized activity in the current year. ((Will follow))

The United States were one of the main recovery drivers for the Swiss Tourism industry in 2023. With the increase in overnights compared to the record year of 2019 expected to top 20%, the market is truly back on top. While we expect the growth to continue in 2024, the rate will be a bit more modest but still in the high single digits. 

As we entered another presidential election year, and with the first two republican primaries won by former president Donald Trump, it looks like the nation will get to choose between two widely unpopular candidates. A rematch of 2020 the voters say they don’t want. Incumbent President Biden ‘s age of 81 is a concern even for many democrats, who fear he cannot run an effective campaign, let alone finish a second term in office. While he still gets overwhelming support from his party, there is a vocal group of young, progressive voters who strongly disagree on foreign policy (Israel/Gaza) with the Biden administration and threaten to withhold their support. Of course, Donald Trump, at 77, is not only almost as old as Mr Biden, but also faces 91 felony counts across tow state courts and two different federal districts.  Any of which could potentially end up with a prison sentence. 

With a wide array of geo-political issues, ranging from Russia/NATO tension, Israel/Gaza conflict, and the strategic competition between the US and China, the broken American political system looks like it is not able to provide the unifying, strong leadership it will need.

Not only did the much-anticipated recession of 2023 never happen, but instead the US economy also grew at a surprise pace. GDP increased a robust 2.5% in 2023 and fuelled by strong consumer spending and hiring registered at 3.3% in the final three months of the year. This smashed expectations and is higher than throughout the entire decade pre-pandemic. Inflation continues to come down as it remained below 3% from October to December 2023, bolstering expectations that the Federal Reserve will start cutting interest later this year.  The encouraging economic date gave the stock market a boost towards the of January 2024 with the the benchmark S&P 500 closing at a record high for five straight trading days, the longest streak of its kind since November 2021. Despite all this, Americans overwhelmingly disapprove of the handling of the economy by the Biden administration. Ongoing effects of high inflation and the least affordable housing market in over a generation are contributing to many not feeling the countries growth personally. Furthermore, a slew of companies across the tech, media, finance, and retail industries made significant cuts to staff in 2023. And the forecastfor 2024 is already looking grim, with companies like Amazon, BlackRock, Nike, Intel and Citygroup having already announced plans for cuts this year. Experts anticipate a slight increase in the unemployment rate to 4.2% by the end of the year, up from its current 3.7%. And finally, the strong consumer spending is being driven partly by falls in the saving rate and increased used of personal credits, which are a downside risk to the outlook later this year.

Thanks to the strong performance of the US travel industry, interest in the market is extremely high from all sides. Flight capacity to Switzerland will increase in 2024 with new SWISS flights from Washington DC and Toronto (summer only) and Delta from Atlanta to Zurich. This not only reflects the airlines confidence in growth of the market, but also in the vacation destination Switzerland. With the purchase of Crans-Montana Mountain Resorts, another key player in the market is fully commitment to expanding its business to Switzerland. We expect many American Epic Ski Pass holders to travel to the Valais in the coming winter, following the success story of Andermatt. The landscape within the travel industry is as fragmented as ever. The trade has gained even more importance since Covid, especially with our target clientele in the luxury segment. 49 Virtuoso properties in Switzerland and ST winning the Best Tourism Board award at the 2023 Virtuoso Awards are just two signs of our commitment to the travel adviser community. With Internova becoming noticeable stronger, we look forward to hosting a Travel Leaders Owners Summit in the Ticino in March 2024.  Having said this, it would be wrong to ignore the growing number of customers booking their vacations directly online, a trend which we see for example with the rising popularity of sbb.ch for train bookings.

Americans love ‘ticking-off’ must-sees and prefer destinations, which are well-known in America. Thankfully, Switzerland is one of them. While the natural beauty of Switzerland attracts them, they often stay in our cities. Four out of the top five destinations visited by Americans in 2023 are cities (Zurich, Luzern, Geneva, and Basel), with Zermatt being the only mountain resort making the list. Destinations in the Bernese Oberland saw a disproportionally high growth from the US in 2024, and we saw a significant increase in interest in travel by train.  Here are some Key Trends in the US:

• Guests take more international trips and spend more money on vacations

• 2.2 trips pre-pandemic up to 3.8 trips per year now
• Overall spend up by 16%
• Millennials take almost 4x more international trips than Boomers
• Boomers spend more than twice as much per trip compared to Millennials

• Changes in travel behavior turned from pent-up demand to new normal
• Millennials are on the cusp of their peak spending years
• Interest in Europe is smaller with GenZ and Millennials than with Boomers

• SoMe is a powerful tool to inspire these generations
• TikTok most downloaded app
• Travel content has been reimagined for short-form, vertical, sound-on formats

• More sources used than ever before to plan vacations 
• Share of bookings made on smart phone up by 15% compared to 2019
• Share shift from mobile web to mobile app
• 79% of international travelers prefer to visit multiple locations

The US market focuses primarily on the personas Kris, Max and Pat. Find more information about the personas here.