Funded Projects

Covid-19 pandemic has hit very hard the world economy. In Switzerland, SECO estimates that GDP will decline by 7% in 2020 and the rate of unemployment will rise to 4% (from 2.3% in 2019). Data available in October 2020 shows that international arrival in Switzerland were down by 60.3% and urban tourism witnessed a drop-in sale of up to 60. The international aviation network remains largely grounded, while there is minimal (if any) activity in the Meetings, Incentive, Conference and Events sector (MICE). The impact of the pandemic on urban hotels has been reinforced by the fact that the entire events industry has been on hold since March 2020. The survival of tourism businesses that were viable before the pandemic is now threatened, with the many small-scale businesses in the sector that are particularly vulnerable. Therefore, Business Hotels in Urban Context should reinvent themselves in the medium and long period generating respectively, a thorough understanding of possible new source of revenues and strategic moves in the future. This project has been designed to tackle this issue by accelerating the innovation process on medium and long term, propelling the business of urban business hotel towards new business models for an ever-changing environment.