{"id":99762,"date":"2026-07-08T11:07:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T11:07:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/99762\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T11:07:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T11:07:21","slug":"swiss-cable-cars-see-solid-early-summer-visitor-numbers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/99762\/","title":{"rendered":"Swiss cable cars see solid early summer visitor numbers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>    <img src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/5e26bd5c5517293822b1b09c9c6ee21a2c1b7722-91715104.jpg\" width=\"1400\" height=\"1050\" alt=\"Swiss mountain railways have, on the whole, got off to a good start to the season\" loading=\"eager\" decoding=\"sync\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                Swiss mountain railways have, on the whole, got off to a good start to the season            <\/p>\n<p>            Keystone-SDA        <\/p>\n<p>        Swiss cable cars and mountain railways got off to a strong overall start to the summer in May and June, with a 5% increase in first-time visitors. However, big differences persist across regions.\n<\/p>\n<p>            Listen to the article        <\/p>\n<p>            Listening the article        <\/p>\n<p>                Toggle language selector            <\/p>\n<p>                            English (US)                        <\/p>\n<p>                            English (British)                        <\/p>\n<p>            Generated with artificial intelligence.        <\/p>\n<p>        This content was published on    <\/p>\n<p>        July 8, 2026 &#8211; 11:37\n<\/p>\n<p>On Wednesday, the Swiss cable car association said cableways in the Bernese Oberland recorded 29% more first-time visitors than in the same period last year \u2013 primarily due to the Schilthornbahn.<\/p>\n<p>Last year, the cableway in southwestern Switzerland operated on a limited basis due to repairs. Without this one-off factor, the region\u2019s 4% growth would be roughly in line with the national average.<\/p>\n<p>\n    More<\/p>\n<p>    <img src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/639852713_highres.jpg\" width=\"1300\" height=\"867\" alt=\"Schilthornbahn\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"auto\"\/><\/p>\n<p>        More    <\/p>\n<p>        \u2018Swiss engineering at its best\u2019: the steepest cable car in the world    <\/p>\n<p class=\"teaser-wide-card__excerpt\">\n<p>                        This content was published on                    <\/p>\n<p>                        Feb 8, 2025                    <\/p>\n<p>                A section of the Schilthornbahn cableway is the latest example of breathtaking engineering  in the Swiss Alps. But how steep is it?            <\/p>\n<p>    <a class=\"teaser-wide-card__link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.swissinfo.ch\/eng\/archive-alpine-environment\/swiss-engineering-at-its-best-the-steepest-cable-car-in-the-world\/88757482\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><\/p>\n<p>            Read more: \u2018Swiss engineering at its best\u2019: the steepest cable car in the world<br \/>\n    <\/a><\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, eastern Switzerland saw a 20% drop compared with May and June 2025, largely due to the temporary suspension of operations on the S\u00e4ntis cableway, also due to refurbishments. Excluding this one-off factor, the result would remain stable, the cable car association said.<\/p>\n<p>The southern canton of Ticino (-1%) stagnated, while Graub\u00fcnden (-2%), the Vaud and Fribourg Alps (-4%), Valais (-5%) and central Switzerland (-7%) were slightly below the previous year\u2019s level.<\/p>\n<p>For its seasonal monitoring exercise, the cable car association analyses visitor numbers from over 140 association members across Switzerland. May 2026 was often cold in the country, whereas June was hot, drawing many to the mountains.<\/p>\n<p>Compared to the five-year average, the number of first-time users of cable cars in May and June 2026 was even more positive. Across Switzerland, they were 35% above the 2021-2025 mean. According to the cable car association, the growth can be attributed to the lifting of restrictions in place during the pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>\n    More<\/p>\n<p>    <img src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/template_dialog-3.png\" width=\"1500\" height=\"1000\" alt=\"Tourists wait with their cars for free parking spaces at the church car park, on Sunday, 19 May 2024 in Lauterbrunnen in the Bernese Oberland. The holiday resort of Lauterbrunnen wants to introduce an entrance fee for day tourists travelling by car. Like many other tourist resorts around the world, the municipality in the Bernese Oberland struggles with large streams of tourists.\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"auto\"\/><\/p>\n<p>        More    <\/p>\n<p>        Mass tourism in Switzerland: beneficial or detrimental?    <\/p>\n<p class=\"teaser-wide-card__excerpt\">\n<p>                        This content was published on                    <\/p>\n<p>                        Jul 5, 2024                    <\/p>\n<p>                While some see tourism in Switzerland as a welcome boost, others are concerned about too many tourists in certain regions.            <\/p>\n<p>    <a class=\"teaser-wide-card__link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.swissinfo.ch\/eng\/archive-workplace-switzerland\/mass-tourism-in-switzerland-beneficial-or-detrimental\/82701889\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><\/p>\n<p>            Read more: Mass tourism in Switzerland: beneficial or detrimental?<br \/>\n    <\/a><\/p>\n<p>The benefits of Swiss stability<\/p>\n<p>According to the industry association, international conditions also influence demand, alongside the weather.<\/p>\n<p>At a time of geopolitical uncertainties, Switzerland continues to be perceived as a safe, stable and high-quality destination, it said. As such, international visitors have not slumped as much as feared. The mountains also remain attractive for the Swiss population.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSwitzerland\u2019s stability is proving to be a competitive advantage, particularly on the international market,\u201d Berno Stoffel, Director of the Swiss cable car association, said in a the press release.<\/p>\n<p>+ <a href=\"https:\/\/www.swissinfo.ch\/eng\/about-us\/how-swissinfo-produces-news-in-english\/91695684\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">How we produce English news<\/a><br \/>Translated from German, reviewed by an\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.swissinfo.ch\/eng\/department\/english-department\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">English Department<\/a> journalist.<\/p>\n<p>        Articles in this story    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Swiss mountain railways have, on the whole, got off to a good start to the season Keystone-SDA Swiss&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99763,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[101,5837,100,8471,103,41,17,3196,15505],"class_list":["post-99762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-switzerland","tag-article","tag-beat-tourism-trends","tag-latest-news","tag-mountains","tag-production-type-deepl-autotranslation","tag-swiss","tag-switzerland","tag-tourism","tag-travel-and-commuting"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116884042593831594","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}