Switzerland

With a per capita GDP among the top 10 globally and a strong Swiss franc, Switzerland is not only a wealthy country, but an expensive one for tourists. In 2015, the World Economic Forum’s Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report ranked Switzerland as the most expensive of 141 countries for visitors. Nevertheless, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council, internal spending on travel and tourism by residents and nonresidents, for business and leisure purposes, along with government spending on services directly linked to tourism (e.g., museums, national parks), constituted 2.1% of the Swiss GDP in 2015. Travel and tourism in Switzerland directly generated 142,000 jobs in 2015, a number that represents 2.8% of total employment in the country.

A strong Swiss franc in 2015 hurt the ...