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Switzerland with its seven million inhabitants, of which 20,1 % (BfS 2001) are non‐Swiss citizens, ranks among the top seven nations with respect of income per capita. Due to its wealth as well as its small size, the travel intensity of Switzerland is comparably high. Because it always had a tradition of neutrality and liberal political positions, freedom of travel was guaranteed for generations. Since Switzerland hasn't been drawn into World War 2, the emergence of the new dynamic of travel took place early in the fifties. Switzerland therefore is a kind of very developed travel market. According to the WTO statistics, Switzerland ranks among the top tourist buyer countries (cp. WTO 2001). The Institute of Public Services and Tourism at the University of St.Callen (former Institute for Transport and Tourism) has been conducting a survey on the travel behaviour of Swiss customers for more then thirty years (cp. Bieger & Laesser 2002). On a regular base of every second to third year, a representative consumer panels of 2000 households is interviewed by written questionnaires. The Swiss travel market proves a high validity in comparisons with the official Swiss statistical figures for travel, with one small limit: The number of travels intensity is underestimated due to the fact that people tend to undervalue the number of travels to their usual destinations like second homes. The goal of this contribution is to give an overview on the travel behaviour of Swiss customers as example for a well developed country. This will be done in two parts. Part 1 is featuring some descriptive main results, concerning the development and structure of the overall travellers. Part 2 consists of two papers, done by Ph.D students in a seminar taught by the authors of this contribution at the University of St. Gallen. These two articles give a deeper insight into some aspects of travel behaviour.

This paper makes a contribution to the exploration of the travel type “Visiting friends and relatives (VFR)”, which is a relatively new field of research. The demarcation and the differences between VFR and other types of trip are the focus of attention of this study. Thus the research goal is to delineate the linking up of VFR with other travel types. Using data from an extensive and representative travel survey covering 2,000 households and more than 11,000 trips, this study found that about one third of the Swiss VFR travelers use commercial accommodation. Although researchers have found in other studies, that VFR type travelers tend on spending more money on meals and catering this could not be confirmed. It was also found that VFR travelers do not have a higher duration of holidays than other travelers. Besides this study determines that VFR is a truly independent travel type. Therefore it has to be looked at separately and not in connection with other travel types.

For tourism, significant research has been conducted in industry‐specific marketing. Basically, the topic of discussion is the effectiveness and efficiency of the marketing of destinations. As marketing segmentation is one of the most critical parts of any marketing strategy, the authors believe that a customer segmentation by motivations via an activity‐based approach will increase the destination's marketing impact. This study aims to backtrack travel motivations from tourist behaviour which can be observed i.e. the activities they performed. The idea is to find out which motivations to target marketingwise that attract tourists who in turn fit the destination's attraction potential, and activity‐offering competencies. In order to test the hypothesis, a contingency analysis was employed using data from the Swiss travel market. By exploiting the linkage between motivations and activities, the authors have found 34 significant activities, 15 of which can be exclusively linked to a traveller motivation.

This study attempts to segment the Swiss travel market based on holiday activities. It is based on data of the 2001 travel market in Switzerland. Cluster and discriminant analysis have been employed in order to segment the data and to explain the differences between the clusters. Hereby, five activity‐clusters could be defined, each representing a set of holiday activities most likely to be exercised. The analysis of the five clusters revealed that two demographic profile variables “occupation” and “size of household” did explain the affiliation to a certain cluster. The same could be found for the following travel profile variables: “destination and duration of the trip”, “total number of participants from a household and “type of trip”. Further research will be necessary to find out if the clusters identified really do fulfil the needed criteria for market segments in order to be used by companies in the travel industry.

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, It is an honor and a pleasure for me to be the first speaker of this seminar which deals with the contribution of Switzerland to the development and promotion of tourism all over the world and in the Middle East Area in particular.

The study aims at reviewing the concept of travel typologies. For this purpose the two determination factors explaining travel behavior, motivation and destination choice, are chosen to verify the validity of travel typologies. The study is based on an extensive and representative travel survey covering almost 2,000 households and more than 12,000 trips within Switzerland. Generally, travel typologies seem to be a valuable instrument for the tourism industry to anticipate consumer behavior and to plan marketing activities appropriately. The results reveal that there is no clear and highly significant connection between travel typologies and the selected determination factors. As a conclusion, the concept of travel typologies seems to be not reliable.

Classical socio‐demographic segmentation approaches of tourists mostly fail to cluster customer groups appropriately. More recent segmentation approaches have employed a more customer‐centric perspective, attempting to capture consumer behavioral patterns. Within such segmentation, one very promising approach examines the activities pursued by tourists. This research aims to identify activity patterns of outbound travelers for segmentation and ultimately to recognize experiential consumption spheres created by tourists at a destination.

This paper applies a posteriori, data‐driven, activity‐based segmentation to outbound travelers.

The present study identifies six activity‐based clusters: average short‐haul holiday experiences (Cluster 1); short repeat healthy winter experiences (Cluster 2); new beach experiences (Cluster 3); short social encounter experiences (Cluster 4); new place experiences (Cluster 5); and seniors' new place experiences (Cluster 6).

This research is unlike many other studies that apply segmentation to inbound travelers. The authors' approach analyzes outbound travelers and is based on the notion that activities are the basis of the experiential consumption of consumers and the idea that customers co‐create experiences in so‐called experiential consumption spheres during activity‐based encounters with service providers at a destination.

This paper presents the result of a document review on leisure and travel developments in mature Central European markets. Based on an extensive analysis of (1) socio‐demographic developments, (2) developments with regard to changing values, (3) developments with regard to the economic framework, (4) the future role of work, leisure and allocation of time here fore, (5) consumption trends, and (6) a number of singular other issues, implications for the tourism industry are drawn: (1) There is an increasing international standardisation (homogenisation) of basic service factors in terms of infrastructure and key service elements functionality, coupled with differentiating efforts in terms of specific service elements and experiences provided. (2) Due to and based on network advantages, future quantitative growth is basically triggered by large supply networks and travel corporations. (3) Growth will further take place at best suitable destinations in terms of securing time efficiency of travel experience, multi optionality of supply and international level of quality.

Discusses the importance of tourism on a country's overall economy. Highlights Finland as a particular example, where, due to tourism, the balance of trade soared from a $33.1 million deficit in 1963 to a $34 million surplus in 1970. Analyzes various studies into the tourism industry and examines their findings. Uses a sample of 681 foreign tourists visiting Finland as a survey to gauge tourists' perceptions of 12 European tourist destinations. Reveals findings, inter alia, that: Spain is perceived as the best value for money; Holland has strong accessibility; Ireland is ranked last in offering a cultural experience to tourists. Uses data obtained by survey to concentrate on people's perceptions of Finland. Reveals findings, inter alia, that: Finland is most unlike Germany, Spain, Holland and France; Finland is most like Norway, Denmark and Sweden. Concludes that public and private tourism organisations throughout the world need a focused marketing approach to identify the travelling public's needs.

La connaissance la plus précise des marchés touristiques et de leur interdépendance définit, aussi bien dans le cadre de l'entreprise privée que publique, la base de toute politique d'investissements et évite le suréquipement ou la surproduction.