This article recognises Switzerland as one of the world’s most popular destinations for international travellers, yet also questions whether shifting visitor demographics call for more culturally intelligent adaptations of traditional Swiss service models to better welcome previously underrepresented guests.
Research on Cultural Intelligence
According to data from the Federal Statistical Office, the past decades have seen new key Asian segments joining the traditional tourist base, essentially made up of travellers from neighbouring European countries and the United States in the Swiss tourism sector. The beauty of nature, the mountains, high-quality hospitality, traditions, safety, and even the efficient public transportation system are among the factors attracting new visitors to Switzerland. This raises the legitimate question: Does Switzerland have the necessary cultural intelligence to welcome these guests? Furthermore, how can hotels prepare for these new segments and the changing expectations of culturally diverse guests in the coming years?
As part of our academic research on cultural intelligence in the Swiss hospitality industry, we conducted several interviews with hospitality executives to understand the challenges associated with new travel markets in Switzerland.
Moving Beyond Standardization
When one examines the current changes in the dynamics of tourism such as the demand for more personalized guest experiences, it is worth considering how service providers might move away from the excessive standardization in hospitality, at least in part, when it comes to cultural extents. Our initial findings show that hotel managers believe guests from different cultural backgrounds may have specific motivations for visiting the country.
Indian guests, for example, come to Switzerland not only for the reasons mentioned earlier but also to personally connect with the locations where romantic scenes from several famous Bollywood films (for example, Chandni, Chori Chori, Krissh and Veer-Zaara) were filmed. Linking film scenes to their location holds great value for Indian guests, especially since, according to experts, approximately 80% of Indian visitors are coming to Switzerland for the first time, and many of them may never return, making the trip a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Guests from the Middle East enjoy the cool weather and high-quality services. Switzerland’s popularity is also understandable because certain luxury hotels can flexibly provide exceptional services, often tailored to guests’ specific expectations. It can happen in the form of culinary offerings that take cultural considerations into account, rooms reserved for larger groups and customized excursion packages, among others. Middle Eastern guests also seek a well-established relationship of trust with luxury hotels, which they view as the foundation for future return visits. Consequently, it is in the interest of both parties that such intercultural guest exchanges result in outstanding experiences and lasting relationships between the host and the guest.
Managing Intercultural Expectations and Communication Gaps
However, hospitality service providers must understand the complexity of host-guest relationships primarily because guests rarely adjust their behaviour significantly to the host culture during a short visit. Such relationships have been studied in academic circles by pioneering authors some decades ago already (Smith, 1989; Nash, 1996). Needless to say, these intercultural encounters have become even more complex today because of the emergence of new travel segments around the world. According to interviewees, this is especially true when guests are visiting for the first time. First-time visitors often bring their own culture with them, which includes norms, values, behaviours and expectations that hosts may find difficult to meet if staff have not been trained for such cultural traits.
According to our study, some Asian guests may find the communication style of hotel staff too direct and even unpleasant at times if their social status is not respected. Certain cultures are not used to informality being the norm. Similarly, staff may find it difficult to serve guests who employ multiple staff members at home and are accustomed to such a high level of service. Several interviewees mentioned that authoritarian-style statements such as “Bring me some water” can be offensive to employees in Swiss restaurants. Hence, if hotels provide specialized training to help staff understand such “rude” communication, employees may respond to these intercultural incidents in a less confrontational manner.
Adapting Service Flexibility Without Losing Authenticity
This study focuses on intercultural guest experiences in Switzerland and does not suggest that hotels should turn away from Swiss authenticity and Swiss culture. Rather, it suggests that hotel staff must understand that guests do not leave their culture at home. It is highly unlikely that they would adapt to every detail of the host culture, whether it concerns communication, service expectations, housekeeping, room service, etc. However, ignoring guests’ cultural characteristics does not excuse the consequences. We believe that such challenges could be addressed through greater cultural intelligence among service providers.
Focus group discussions with Asian guests revealed that service in Swiss hotels is considered rather inelastic. It is true that hospitality services in Switzerland are highly standardized, which is to some extent justified by the historical clientele that shared cultural preferences similar to those of the Swiss. Today, however, as visitor segments are changing, Asian customers appear to value a more flexible approach to time. For example, Swiss attitudes to check-out times or additional services such as extra amenities or food delivery could be reconsidered. Guests would prefer to take advantage of the option to delay check-out even if this entails a small additional cost. Breakfast times at most hotels are not well-aligned with the breakfast habits of Middle Eastern guests, so greater flexibility would also be appreciated.
Lack of Training in Cultural Intelligence
Surprisingly, Swiss hotels seldom organize structured training sessions for their staff on the topic of cultural intelligence, a competency that “measures the capability to relate and work effectively in culturally diverse situations” (CQ Center). Some hotel managers revealed that only a few luxury hotels provide cultural diversity training for their employees, but such training generally does not exist in four- and three-star hotels.
Although managers acknowledge the need for cultural intelligence training, they hardly engage in such activities due to a lack of time and resources and instead rely on micromanagement to address growing challenges. In fact, cultural skills and competencies are often shared by experienced colleagues with their junior staff members, without any structured framework. Moreover, this transfer of competencies devotes only a few minutes to each culture. Needless to say, there is room for improvement in this area if Swiss hotels want to keep pace with the changing dynamics of the Swiss hospitality industry.
Toward More Culturally Intelligent Hospitality
According to the literature, it is primarily the responsibility of hospitality providers to adapt to guests, and not the other way around. Consequently, hotels must take three steps into account if they are seeking solutions and progress in this area.
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The first step toward providing more culturally sensitive services is to assess the extent to which service staff exhibit ethnocentrism, that is, the propensity to see other cultures via the prism of one's own, and ethnorelativism, the opposite of the former. Bennett’s model on intercultural sensitivity clearly highlights how different perspectives can hinder intercultural encounters. In addition, a cultural intelligence test for hotel staff can help identify areas where improvement is needed.
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Hotels should consider training their staff on cultural challenges. In most cases, intercultural encounters take place without conflict; however, if challenges do arise, a well-trained service provider can handle them more effectively than someone who lacks a basic understanding of the culture in question. Such incidents can occur, for example, in connection with guest compensation due to service failures, guests’ inappropriate behaviour toward the hotel or other guests, or guests’ unforeseen requests, to name just a few.
- The post-training period should be considered to define strategies and policies to implement coping with current and future intercultural challenges. It should also serve to identify and proactively leverage opportunities arising from cultural diversity to enhance service innovation and guest experience. This EHL research project aims to provide such training and a platform to define strategies and policies for Swiss hotels, should they require it.
Cultural Intelligence as a Strategic Imperative
In summary, our research advises hotels to focus on training programs to develop their staff’s cultural intelligence if they wish to keep pace with the new guest segments emerging in the changing international tourism landscape. Beyond an operational competency, cultural intelligence should be reframed as a strategic capability that underpins long-term competitiveness in a globalised hospitality market. The aim here is to preserve brand relevance among high-value international segments. Hotels that systematically embed cultural intelligence into their service design are in a stronger position to create more differentiated and repeatable guest experiences. This capacity to navigate cultural complexity with nuance and agility is what could help define the next generation of excellence in Swiss hospitality.
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