Switzerland travel news

The Federal Statistical Office's first estimate for September shows overnight stays in Swiss hotels up 5.5% on September 2025. Foreign guests were up 6.4% and Swiss guests up 4.4%. It is the second month in a row of growth after a run of declines that began in March, when the war in the Middle East and the airspace closures that followed cut arrivals from Asia and the Gulf. August had still been 2.1% down. For the first eight months of the year the country stood at 30.2 million nights, 0.7% below the same period of 2025, which was a record year.

Skiing on the Theodul glacier between Zermatt and Cervinia resumed on Wednesday 14 October after the summer closure, which this year came at the end of July following the heatwaves. Seven lifts and about eleven kilometres of piste opened first, including the Plateau Rosa lifts and the Matterhorn Glacier Ride II between Klein Matterhorn and Testa Grigia. A third Plateau Rosa lift with a beginners' area and a small snowpark is to follow when conditions allow. The resort's full winter season begins on 1 November, with Sunnegga, Rothorn and the Gornergrat ski area from 28 November.

The first winter openings come this week. The Titlis glacier above Engelberg, an hour from Lucerne, opens on Thursday 29 October, with the Stand and Trübsee sections from 15 November. Saas-Fee, which has had glacier skiing since early October, begins its winter season on Saturday 31 October, and Mürren-Schilthorn in the Jungfrau region opens the same day, at weekends only at first. Zermatt's winter season begins on 1 November, Verbier's Mont-Fort on 7 November and Glacier 3000 above Gstaad on 8 November. Most of the big resorts — Davos, St. Moritz, Andermatt, Grindelwald-Wengen, Laax and Arosa-Lenzerheide — open between 6 and 28 November, and dates can shift with the snow.

SWISS International Air Lines announced a new seasonal route from Zurich to Toulouse, twice a week from 25 June to 23 August 2027. In Europe it is adding frequencies to Budapest, Hamburg, Bremen, Paris, Nice and Niš. On long-haul, the Zurich–Tokyo service runs daily in early summer and in October and six times a week from June to September, up from five. The Zurich–Bengaluru route, which began with the winter 2026/27 timetable, continues into summer 2027 at five flights a week.

The main Christmas markets have published their 2026 dates. Zurich runs from 19 November to 23 December across its markets at the main station, Sechseläutenplatz and the Niederdorf. Montreux, on Lake Geneva, opens on 20 November and runs to 24 December. Basel, which many rank as the largest and most traditional in the country, opens on 26 November on Barfüsserplatz and Münsterplatz and closes on 23 December. Bern's old-town markets run from 28 November to 24 December. Lucerne and Geneva usually open in late November and early December; their 2026 dates were still being confirmed when this was written.

Zermatt Tourism reports that the boutique hotel 22 Summits will be renamed THE SIXTEEN 20 from 13 November 2026. The hotel is one of a run of new openings and changes in the village this year: the restaurant CESI, serving modern alpine cooking, opened on Kirchstrasse in late August, a rooftop bar opened in the Obere Matten in June, and the cable car from Trockener Steg to the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise was fully modernised in May.

The 2027 timetable takes effect on Sunday 13 December 2026. Direct Zurich–Venice trains go from one to two a day in each direction, and a Lugano service is extended to Venice. The daily Zurich–Florence train will end at Bologna, with a summer extension to Rimini on the Adriatic. The Zurich–Genoa–La Spezia train becomes daily. The Basel–Lucerne–Milan line will end at Lugano for want of train paths, though the direct Milan–Basel service via Lucerne continues. From the timetable change the new-generation Nightjet is planned on Zurich–Amsterdam, and from 5 April 2027 three TGVs a day are planned between Lausanne, Geneva and Paris. SBB has warned of building work in 2027 that may lengthen some journeys.