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Tourism
Employment in the holiday region
Valais is a holiday destination, and tourism is a big part of Valais. The industry has brought CHF 2.39 billion in gross value added to the Alpine canton (as of 2016). 18.6 percent of employees in Valais work in tourism. In Upper Valais, the figure is even a little higher – one in three people in Upper Valais depend on domestic and international tourists for their livelihood.
Facts and figures
- 24’100 jobs in Valais Tourism (2014)
- 15 % of value added in the canton comes from tourism (2016)
- 21.6 million visitors (visitor frequency, 2014)
- 4.10 million overnight hotel stays (2018)
- 30,904 available hotel beds (2018)
- Portes du Soleil is Europe’s largest ski resort, with 600km of pistes
- 23% of Switzerland’s cableways are located in Valais, with a total of 584 installations (2018)
- Valais has over 8,745km of marked hiking trails
Tourism on the tracks
The Matterhorn Gotthard Railway (MGB) is one of the largest licensed transport companies in Switzerland. With more than 7 million people transported per year, the company makes an important contribution as a public transport provider and as a service provider for regional tourism. It employs 647 people in the Valais/Uri/Surselva region. MGB is part of the BVZ Group, which also includes the top two tourist brands, the Gornergrat Bahn and the Glacier Express.