Martin Nydegger’s appointment as the new head of Switzerland Tourism was announced on Friday.
(Keystone)
– Click to enlarge
The top Swiss tourism body has announced that Martin Nydegger will take over from his predecessor Jürg Schmid as head of the organisation. The 46-year-old Nydegger has been a member of Switzerland Tourism’s executive board since 2008.
A selection committee within Switzerland Tourism’s Board of Directors selected Nydegger for the post earlier this week, and announced the decision on Friday after the Swiss cabinet approved the move. He will formally take over as CEO of Switzerland Tourism on January 1, 2018.
“Based on his international tourism experience, his strategic expertise and

Martin Nydegger’s appointment as the new head of Switzerland Tourism was announced on Friday.
(Keystone)
– Click to enlarge
The top Swiss tourism body has announced that Martin Nydegger will take over from his predecessor Jürg Schmid as head of the organisation. The 46-year-old Nydegger has been a member of Switzerland Tourism’s executive board since 2008.
A selection committee within Switzerland Tourism’s Board of Directors selected Nydegger for the post earlier this week, and announced the decision on Friday after the Swiss cabinet approved the move. He will formally take over as CEO of Switzerland Tourism on January 1, 2018.
“Based on his international tourism experience, his strategic expertise and

The shuttles were designed by French company Navya with an operating platform developed by Swiss firm Bestmile
(Marc Striffeler/tpf) – Click to enlarge
The launch of two autonomous shuttle buses in Fribourg on Friday marks the first time in Switzerland that such vehicles have been inducted into the regular transport network.
The “self-driving” electric minibuses link the Marly Innovation Center (MIC) in the suburbs to the Fribourg Public Transport (TPF) network. The 1.3 km journey takes seven minutes with four stops. The vehicles have an autonomy of eight hours and their maximum speed is limited to 25 km/h.
Guided by GPS and radars they stop and honk if they spot an obstacle. Each of these vehicles is approximately

Manufacturing has picked up, but not overall growth. (Keystone)
Swiss economic growth estimates for the year have been revised down to under 1% by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO). This would make it the slowest year since 2009.
The stats released Thursday predict a growth rate of 0.9% for 2017. The figure has fallen from previous estimates of 1.4%, and would mark the worst-performing economic year since a 2.2% contraction in 2009.
The reasons why the economy is “only gradually resuming a stronger growth trajectory,” as SECO put it, include slow growth in most service sectors. It also comes despite an uptick in the performance of the manufacturing, hotel and catering industries, it said.
The figures

Swiss hotel websites should be allowed to undercut prices offered by online booking platforms according to parliament (Keystone)
A majority of parliament wants to restrict online reservation platforms in a bid to protect the Swiss hotel sector.
The House of Representatives on Monday overwhelmingly approved a proposal and followed the Senate demanding that Swiss hotels will be allowed to offer lower prices for their accommodation on their websites than online travel fare aggregators, including Booking.com.
The government, which came out against the motion, now has to submit a bill which will be discussed in parliament at a later stage.
During the debate on Monday, supporters from the left and the right of the

Belair is due to stop operations at the end of October (archive picture)
(Keystone) – Click to enlarge
A potential buyer has been found for Belair, the Swiss subsidiary of insolvent airline Air Berlin, according to Swiss media reports which cite an internal communication to Belair employees.
Belair management wrote that there was at least one offer for the airline, according to the az Nordwestschweiz newspaperexternal link and the Swiss news agency on Friday. Both have seen the communication, which was dated last Tuesday. The name of the airline’s possible saviour has not been revealed.
The deadline for interested bidders to submit offers was Friday at 2pm. Air Berlin has said that it will take a decision on bids