Tourism stakeholders attending the award ceremony praised Geneva as an attractive tourist destination offering high quality services to visitors, while escaping the downsides of mass tourism that affect many other major European cities. Beautifully situated on the shores of Lake Geneva and within a stone’s throw of the Alps, Geneva is easy to access thanks to excellent land and air connections. Its accommodation offer is outstanding with the availability of great weekend deals. Additionally, the high number of pioneering services available; including free public transport, access to many activities at reduced rates with the Geneva Pass, a year-long rich cultural programme and even customised tours make Geneva the ideal destination for a weekend break in Europe.

City breakers, a central focus alongside advanced digital expertise

With a clear market position and success-driven strategy, Geneva Tourism has been working for many years to implement and promote a series of ground-breaking products tailored to meet the needs of city breakers. In line with this, Geneva Tourism has developed invaluable expertise in digital technology, a key driver of its marketing strategy. Head of Marketing at Geneva Tourism, Vincent Dubi, has commented:

“Several factors, including the emergence of the internet, have considerably impacted the tourism industry. Nowadays, most Europeans book their own holidays. We have successfully negotiated this change by strengthening our digital hub in order to be able to speak the same language as city breakers and therefore promote Geneva in the best and most innovative way possible among our target audience. In Switzerland, Geneva is a pioneer in the field and our digital leadership has certainly been a great help in successfully positioning Geneva as the ideal destination for weekend breaks.”

The development of a comprehensive website available in eight languages, sophisticated social networking strategies with pages tailored to different markets, comprehensive digital campaigns, and utilising bloggers and key influencers are just some examples of the initiatives implemented by Geneva Tourism.

The special attention paid to welcoming European visitors and cutting-edge digital expertise have undoubtedly helped Geneva stand out from its competitors and achieve an unprecedented hat trick in becoming the leading European city break destination for 2017.