Tourism at a record high Swiss hotels reported a total of 43.9 million overnight stays in 2025, eclipsing the previous record set in 2024. In particular, there was a sharp increase in the number of foreign guests, most of whom came from Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom and France. The cantons with the highest number of overnight stays were Zurich, Berne, Grisons and Valais. (WS) Increase in foreign trade Swiss foreign trade grew in 2025 – despite US tariffs. Exports rose by 1.4 per cent to a record 287 billion francs. Imports also increased by 4.5 per cent to 232.7 billion francs, the second-highest figure ever recorded. The main drivers were pharmaceutical and chemical products, which account for over half of all exports. (WS) VAT hike? The Federal Council wants to set up a dedicated fund to help strengthen Swiss security, recognising that the defence ministry needs to bolster air defences and improve counter-drone and other electronic warfare systems. To generate this additional funding, it proposes raising VAT by 0.8 per cent over a period of ten years, starting in 2028. The constitutional amendment needed to effect this increase is due to be put to voters in 2027. (WS) Record-breaking Olympics Switzerland celebrated a historic medal haul at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina, its athletes putting in their best-ever performance at a Winter Games with a total of 23 medals: six golds, nine silvers and eight bronzes. The Swiss finished eighth in the medal table, ahead of Austria and just behind Sweden. (WS) Brienz/Brinzauls habitable again Residents of Alpine village Brienz/Brinzauls in the Albula Valley (canton of Grisons) can finally return to their homes after 62 weeks. The evacuation order effectively exiling them from their own village since November 2024 has been lifted. This is after monitoring showed that Brienz/ Brinzauls was no longer in acute danger. “Swiss Review” reported on the village’s plight in edition 5/2023. (WS) Stanislas Wawrinka Tennis player Stanislas Wawrinka announced in December 2025 that this would be his final year on tour. “It’s time to write the final chapter of my career,” the Vaud native said. When he was invited to Melbourne in January at the age of nearly 41, “Stan the Man” showed what he was still made of against world number 9, American Taylor Fritz. The “Stanimal” finally lost — in style — in the third round of his last Australian Open, the same competition where, in 2014, he had first eliminated Novak Djokovic, and then Rafaël Nadal in the final. He has had quite the career since the first time he hit a ball with his elder brother in Saint-Barthélemy (Vaud). Wolfram, their father, ran the farm at a centre for the disabled. Stanislas, who was born in 1985, says that he drew his inner strength from this environment. Four years earlier, about 180 kilometres away, another boy had been born: Roger Federer. “To many people, I’m the Swiss guy who loses,” Wawrinka once told a French newspaper bitterly. Roger has surpassed Stan at home, but the latter is still extremely popular abroad. He is, after all, the man who beat Federer, Nadal and Djokovic. He won Roland Garros, playing in some very Swiss red-and-white checkered shorts. “I go swimming in them, I play tennis in them and afterwards I sleep with them on,” he joked. The differences between Wawrinka and Federer have been well documented. The Vaud player frequently earns praise for his approach towards his adversaries. For example, Stan did not celebrate at Roland Garros in 2015 when he beat a Rafaël Nadal in poor form. What will Wawrinka do when he has hung up his racket? Sell shoes? “I still have dreams in this sport,” the Swiss said in his characteristically reserved style. STÉPHANE HERZOG Swiss Review / April 2026 / No. 2 11 Top pick News
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