Chillon Castle on Lake Geneva is one of the most visited sights in Switzerland. (archive image)
The moated castle near Montreux VD had the absolute visitor record in 2019 in the year before the start of the corona pandemic with 432,000 tourists. The low was reached in 2020 with 133,712, when the castle remained closed for around four months due to the pandemic.
Since then, the number of visitors has increased steadily. In 2022, the goal of 238,000 visitors was far exceeded with 304,000 visitors, as the Chillon Castle Foundation announced on Tuesday. The foundation is particularly pleased that the foreign guests have returned.
In 2022, as in the years before the Corona pandemic, these accounted for almost 65 percent of the visitors. With a share of 35 percent, most visitors continue to come from Switzerland. This is followed by guests from the USA (14 percent), France (9.5 percent), Spain (3.8 percent) and Germany (3.4 percent). For 2023, Foundation Director Marta Sofia dos Santos hopes to see Asian audiences, including Chinese, “soon again”. Chillon Castle is one of the best preserved medieval castles in Europe.