Promote entrepreneurship

The vision for the Federal Government’s Tourism Strategy centres around a competitive tourism industry in Switzerland. This is impossible to achieve without entrepreneurial thinking and action at all levels. One of the objectives of the Strategy is therefore to promote entrepreneurship in the sector. Many topic areas and challenges tie into this. Chief among them are the framework conditions for entrepreneurship, cost and productivity issues, questions relating to basic and further training, and the appeal of the tourism labour market. Building on past experience promoting entrepreneurship, three priorities have been set for the next few years:

Action Item 4: Support structural change in the tourism industry

Tourism strategy funding instruments are a particularly effective means of supporting structural change in tourism. These are specifically designed to encourage larger and more competitive corporate entities. Business alliances are important here as a way of offsetting the disadvantages of small-scale structures. Encouraging start-ups, new company registrations and succession deals is one area of focus in the interests of healthy business demographics in the tourism sector. An important contribution is made by the promotion offers of Innosuisse as well as the coaching offers for actors in tourism through the Regional Innovation Systems (RIS), which are co-financed by the NRP. The focus on succession arrangements should play an important role in the promotion of the accommodation sector through the SGH and in the coaching programmes of HotellerieSuisse supported by the federal government through the NRP.

Action Item 5: Enhance the strategic capabilities and strategy orientation of tourism actors

Entrepreneurial success requires strategic thinking and a strategic approach. This means identifying and cultivating successful markets. Enhancing strategic capabilities and strategic orientation is an important topic in connection with tourism strategy funding instruments. It is to be achieved in particular via coaching and knowledge transfer. As part of its Tourism Strategy, the federal government supports coaching services and programmes via the NRP, in particular. For instance, the programme that HotellerieSuisse launched and will run up to 2023 in partnership with SECO. On the other hand, the coaching support delivered of the Regional Innovation Systems RIS, which are co-financed by the NRP and promote the competitiveness and innovative capacity of SMEs.

Action Item 6: Tap into the potential of the tourism labour market

The situation on the tourism labour market was strained even before the outbreak of COVID-19. As mentioned above in Section 4 on the situation analysis, this has been exacerbated by the effects of the pandemic. The Federal Government’s Tourism Strategy is aware of this challenge. SECO sees itself as a coordinator between all the parties involved to encourage cooperation and dialogue. Communication with the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI), industry associations and the cantons should be maintained, and moved to the next level where necessary. In this context, the Tourism Forum Switzerland (TFS) should continue to be used as a platform for dialogue and coordination and to discuss challenges such as the lack of qualified employees. In addition to its coordinating role, SECO has joined with experts to create a knowledge base and analyses as a starting point for discussions on potential solutions. Labour market-related projects are also to received targeted financial support via Innotour and the NRP.