INTERLAKEN - Early August occupancy in the Jungfrau region, Lucerne and the Valais held up as the plateau stayed hot. Hotels sold shade, altitude and trains. Guides sold fewer of the highest tours than the same week a decade ago.
Day-trippers from Zurich and Basel filled the middle of the day and left before dinner. Overnight guests, more European than long-haul, paid for the evenings.
A season in two products
Lakes and lower walks are the product that works. Ice is the product that needs a sentence of caution, as in our July Lucerne note.