Where in Switzerland
Switzerland is small, but tourism inside it is uneven. The same five or six cantons absorb the bulk of every year's arrivals, and the rest sit in their shadow. The first chapter peels that geography apart in three layers: How many visitors land in each canton, Which country sends them, and How much of the traffic is actually Swiss residents on holiday at home.
Zurich, Bern, Graubünden, Valais, and Geneva dominate Swiss tourism overall. The remaining 21 cantons split what's left.
Each canton is shaded by total EU visitor arrivals in the selected year. Scrub the dropdown to walk through 2005-2025.
Source: FSO · Visitor arrivals by canton
This time, the pictures cover all arrivals, not just European travellers.
Cantons split sharply: Geneva generally has over 70% foreign visitors, while Jura is roughly 87% Swiss residents. Big alpine cantons like Graubünden and Valais sit close to half-and-half - they're both international resorts and Swiss favorites.
Each row is a canton. Bars sum to 100% of overnight stays - orange for Swiss residents, blue for foreign visitors. Cantons are sorted by foreign share descending.
Source: FSO · Overnight stays by canton and visitor's country of residence
In 2025, the largest single foreign source is the United States for Zurich, Bern, Lucerne, Valais and Geneva - a recent shift driven by long-haul recovery. Germany still leads Graubünden, Ticino and Basel. France dominates Vaud, on Lake Geneva.
Each canton is colored by the single country supplying the most overnight stays in the selected year, excluding Swiss residents. Scrub the year selector to watch the German→American shift across the 2010s and 2020s.
Source: FSO · Overnight stays by canton and visitor's country of residence
We know the geography. But Swiss tourism has a sharper edge than the maps suggest: a clock. The next chapter asks when each canton actually fills up.
When Switzerland fills up
Swiss tourism runs on a strong seasonal rhythm. Most cantons see their busiest month in summer, when arrivals across all sources peak. But the calendar varies canton by canton - and the intensity of the peak varies more.
In 2024, most cantons recorded their single busiest month in July or August. Zurich peaks earlier - in June - driven by business travel and conferences before the holiday rush. Scrub back to 2020 and the map shatters: In 2020, the pandemic appears to have upended Switzerland’s usual tourism calendar, with several cantons shifting their peak months beyond the usual summer season.
Each canton is colored by the calendar month with the highest arrivals in the selected year. The legend rebuilds each year, showing only months that actually win somewhere.
Source: FSO · Monthly arrivals by canton
On a log color scale, two seasonal personalities emerge. Alpine cantons (Graubünden, Valais, Bern, Ticino) show double peaks in February (ski) and August (hiking). Urban cantons (Zurich, Geneva, Basel) have flatter year-round patterns with a single mid-year bump.
Rows are cantons sorted by peak month + volume. Columns are months Jan-Dec. Cell color shows arrivals on a logarithmic scale - darker = more.
Source: FSO · Monthly arrivals by canton
We've answered where and when. What remains hidden is the shape of the trip itself: how long visitors stay, and whether the pandemic permanently changed who comes back.
How visitors stay, and who came back
Volume tells one story. Behavior tells another. This chapter zooms in on two behavioral signals: how long visitors actually stay per arrival, and how each canton has — or has not — recovered since the pandemic broke in 2020.
In 2024 the longest average stay was in Graubünden, 2.6 nights per arrival - the canton of Davos, St. Moritz and the Engadin. The shortest was in Schaffhausen and Fribourg, around 1.6 nights, suggesting shorter stopovers and faster onward travel.
Each canton is colored by overnight stays divided by arrivals - the average number of nights per visitor. Darker = longer stays.
Source: FSO · Arrivals and overnight stays by canton
The default window (2019 to 2025) tells the post-pandemic story: Geneva +27%, Zurich +17%, Aargau +26%, all overshooting their pre-pandemic peak. At the other end, Obwalden remains 17% behind, Zug 5%, Uri 10%. Change the window to see the full 20-year arc: try 2005 to 2019 to see who grew before the pandemic, or 2019 to 2020 to see the size of the crash.
Move the range slider to set the end year, or type the start and end years directly. Each bar is one canton, sized by percentage change in annual arrivals between the two years. Green indicates growth; red indicates decline.
Source: FSO · Annual arrivals by canton
Visitors stay 1.6 to 2.6 nights. Cantons recovered or stagnated. The question we haven't asked yet is the bluntest one: how much do they spend per night while they're here, and which origin pays the most?
How much they spend in Switzerland
Switzerland is famously expensive. But the bill varies dramatically depending on where the visitor comes from - partly taste, partly trip length.
In 2024, Austrian visitors spent roughly €204 per night in Switzerland - the highest per-night spend of any reported origin. Luxembourgers (€201) and Germans (€178) followed close behind. At the bottom: Portuguese (€76) and Dutch (€94). Only 9 EU countries publish this metric for trips to Switzerland.
Each origin country is colored by what its residents spend per night while visiting Switzerland. Countries shown in dark gray do not publish a CH-specific figure.
Source: Eurostat tour_dem_extotw, filtered to c_dest = CH
Map the same data onto a scatter. Luxembourgers spend the most per trip (€1,037) - high nightly rate × long stays. Austrians spend big per night but take short trips. Hungarians and Portuguese sit in the budget corner. The diagonal lines show implied stay lengths - most visitors fall between 3 and 7 nights.
Horizontal axis: average spending per night. Vertical axis: average spending per trip. Each dot is a source country. The dashed lines mark constant trip lengths (3, 5, 7, 10 nights). Hover any dot for the implied stay length.
Source: Eurostat tour_dem_extotw, filtered to c_dest = CH
We've answered where, when, how, and how much. The final chapter takes a different angle: what actually predicts whether a country sends visitors to Switzerland in the first place? Two hypotheses face each other: distance and wealth.
Why they come: distance vs wealth
The scatter makes the answer immediately visible. Distance is the dominant force. Countries closer to Switzerland send far more visitors - Germany alone accounts for over 1.5 million arrivals. Beyond 1,500 km, the numbers drop close to zero. Geography, it seems, is destiny. Or almost. The United Kingdom sits over 1,000 km away, yet consistently sends hundreds of thousands of visitors, proof that distance is not the whole story.
Distance
A clear negative correlation exists between distance and arrivals - countries closer to Switzerland consistently send more tourists. Germany sits far above the trend line, while the UK also punches above its distance.
Horizontal axis: number of Arrivals. Vertical axis: distance from Switzerland (km). Each dot is a source country. Hover any dot for the implied travel distance and total arrivals.
Source: REST Countries · Distance data · FSO · Arrivals data
GDP timeline
Most European countries show steady GDP per capita growth from 2019 to 2025. Most countries cluster between 20-55k (PPS); Norway spikes in 2022.
Horizontal axis: GDP per capita (PPS). Vertical axis: Year. Each dot is a source country. Hover any dot for the implied GDP per capita (PPS).
Source: Eurostat · Purchasing power adjusted GDP per capita · 2019-2025
GDP × visits
Higher national wealth does not guarantee more visitors. Ireland, Luxembourg, and Norway have among the highest GDP per capita in Europe, yet their visitor numbers to Switzerland remain modest.
Horizontal axis: visitors to Switzerland (in log scale). Vertical axis: GDP per capita (PPS) (in log scale). Each dot is a source country. Hover any dot to see the country’s arrivals to Switzerland and GDP per capita (PPS).
Source: Eurostat · Purchasing power adjusted GDP per capita · FSO (arrivals) · 2019-2025 · Log scale
Switzerland's appeal endures - not because of wealth or marketing, but because of geography and the established habits of a few neighboring populations. The data confirms what travelers already know: the closer you are, the more likely you are to come. And once the pattern is established, it tends to hold.
What does it all add up to?