reliable , safe , stable destination . He went on to note the country ’ s hospitality industry was allowed to be open for most of the time during the pandemic , which means that staffing issues in this industry are not as bad as in some other countries .

December , beginning of January .”

The UK , a key market for the SCIB , has taken longer than expected to recover , Alex Herrmann acknowledged , in part due to government Covid travel restrictions . The Swiss government ’ s imposition of a one-week quarantine for UK travellers last December did not help matters , Herrmann noted , as it had created a level of uncertainty for the MICE market . However , since February / March there has been a big pick-up in British travellers to Switzerland and the MICE market is recovering quickly as well . Hermann flagged two big initiatives with UK-based organisations that it hosted in March which it is keen to attract more of – Bridelux , an international event for wedding planners in St Moritz , and InVoyage , the luxury incentive travel / events company , which was held in Bürgenstock .

Long-term planning The SCIB is benefitting from a four-year funding programme from the government divided between leisure and MICE and Herrmann stresses this

is important for planning long term as well as signalling to clients / buyers that , financially , Switzerland is a secure partner to do business with . Herrmann issued a salutary warning : “ Every now and again I see a government-run tourism organisation or convention bureau that gets an influx of funding , they are everywhere , they do so many things , but two years later the money is gone for whatever reason – perhaps there is a change of government .

“ Usually we have a nice balance of funding from the government and from older convention centres and tourism organisations .”

And challenges ? Inflation , now sweeping through many economies , has led central bankers , including the Swiss National Bank , to hike interest rates . So , too , geopolitical concerns like the Russia-Ukraine conflict is impacting supply chains and driving up food and energy prices .

Herrmann acknowledged this but stressed the advantages that Switzerland enjoys – namely its reputation for being a

Far left : A bit of outdoor fizz for the Switzerland Meeting Trophy agents Above : Equipped for success in Switzerland

Back to the activities Day One in the mountains provided our Meeting Trophy teams with challenges that included shooting an apple off a person ’ s head , ‘ milking ’ a cow and some crazy golf . There would be no polka dot jersey for Team GB , which had taken this journalist aboard , and we ended the day well down the leader board .

Day 2 gave an opportunity to make amends as the competition left the mountains and headed alongside Lake Geneva to Montreux . And the final day of the competition , Day 3 , brought us to Lausanne .

So what had the meeting planners thought of this year ’ s competition ?

Sissy Herant , a senior corporate travel manager at Corporate Peaks , was impressed by the whole organisation of the event , but flagged that there could have been more interaction with the other teams .

Richard , a project manager at RockitFish , was impressed by the logistics of the event : “ Great organisation . Some of the services like the bag drop ( transporting people ’ s luggage to their hotel room without any hiccups ) were excellent . Villars was beautiful and the Viu Hotel was excellent . The itinerary was mapped out really well . The cars were very good . It ’ s been an excellent trip and I ’ d recommend it to anyone .”

And the winner is … North America ! Team GB , despite rallying after a sluggish start , came in fourth , Belgium in second and Germany in third .

The other winner of course was in-person meetings , with the Switzerland Meeting Trophy back on track , both up and down the mountainsides .