Market Insight: Swiss

SWISS

AUSTRIA PORTUGAL FRANCE UK GERMANY ITALY And so a cold, rainy summer that we haven’t seen the likes of for ages comes to an end in Switzerland. The weather has been really gloomy and as always will have played a big role in the success of the boardsports business.

Overall, attendance in shops wasn’t all that bad, it even seems as though the bad weather brought more people in to our dear retailers for a fun activity while going outside wasn’t so appealing. This meant that the results were often better than anticipated.

Tourism as a whole did suffer however, of course there was national tourism but to a lesser extent than last year and foreign tourism remained clearly down on pre-Covid figures. Unfortunately we saw a decline in overnight stays in our summer resorts and with this came a drop in turnover for dependant businesses.

When it comes to the watersports business, Thierry and Steve Wasmer from Technosurf in Grand-Saconnex (Geneva) are reporting the following: The months of March and April kicked all sectors off really, really strongly, doubling on 2020. However, this did not last throughout the season and SUP slowed up significantly (this represents the shop’s biggest turnover), while kitesurfing was stable and wingsurfing exploded. Going into more detail we can note a decline by half in SUP compared to 2020. Kites remain stable thanks to the windy spring, a large reservoir of participants and great innovations like the SLS from Duotone for example. The return of travel and good collaboration with their main supplier Sideshore also played an important role. Wings are really taking off and turnover quintupled on that of 2020. This sport brings together windsurfers (with the advantage of less equipment), kitesurfers (with the advantage of getting into the water easier) as well as others who are curious. This wasn’t straightforward though as you had to have the stock, the best brands and good product knowledge. To sum up, Technosurf is heading for a good 2021 season, ending up with results that are probably close to that of 2020, which were exceptional. The dull weather will have had a big impact on SUP with the 50% reduction but it was made up for with the good figures in kiting and wings, which are not as weather dependant because their participants are very different and less sensitive.

Talking of watersports, it’s time to hear the news from Alaïa Bay, the wave pool that opened in Sion this spring. Their Communications Manager Vincent Riba tells us of this infrastructure’s raison d’être and the results from the first months of operation. This is what he said: Switzerland has a community of around 40,000 surfers. Up to now, most were going abroad (Europe or beyond) to quench their thirst for surfing, even though it is possible to surf on the rivers (Thun, Bremgarten), in the lakes (Geneva and Neuchâtel for confirmed surfers) or on the static waves (Zurich and Luzern). There is a real surf culture here in Switzerland, especially with the fact that snowsports like ski/ snowboard are so strongly anchored in the Swiss cultural landscape. For many years there have been shaping workshops (Atelier Baume and Galta) as well as surfing clubs and associations. Since Alaïa Bay opened in May, it feels as though this community has found its gathering place and are no longer hiding. With Alaïa Bay, we hope to provide over 100,000 surf sessions over the course of 11 months. Obviously, we are targeting Swiss surfers but we estimate that people will easily undertake a 3-hour drive for it, which represents a potential 3 million further participants. Between May and the end of July, we have already recorded 25,000 sessions, which is around 10% more than we forecasted. In terms of customer provenance, we can see that 75% of customers come from Switzerland (70% Francophone, 30% Germanophone) and the rest from continental Europe (mainly Italy, France and Germany).