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Well it just got 20% more expensive. Ouch.
eh?
Swiss national bank just abandoned the Euro currency peg. Currency has strengthened by c.20% (it's all over the place) against sterling this morning.
Well it just got 20% more expensive.
Not if you paid in advance it hasn't, the tour operator will have to swallow the delta.
It's okay Gideon has promised we'll be rich beyond avarice by 2030 and with his track record of keeping promises I'm looking forward to it
Crumbs, perhaps i need to look again at that job offer.
Not if you paid in advance it hasn't, the tour operator will have to swallow the delta.
I was more referring to costs whilst out there; ski pass, rental, beers etc.
Yup been watching it here at work (in Finance). 15 years ago the GBP/CHF fx rate was 2.90. Over that period the Swiss Franc has doubled in value vs the pound. I kick myself everyday for not buying a property there back then.
It's okay Gideon has promised we'll be rich beyond avarice by 2030 and with his track record of keeping promises I'm looking forward to it
@ElShalimo Just think how rich we might have been if the UK had followed Swiss style economic polcies over the past 20 years
the tour operator will have to swallow the delta.
Not necessarily, most have a clause that allows them to surcharge you in events such as this, or when fuel becomes radically more expensive.
jambalaya - Member
That would have required a government that had a vision past the next general election.
I was more referring to costs whilst out there; ski pass, rental, beers etc.
Normally Ski pass & rental are part of the package (if you needed to rent).
Fly out in 2 weeks. Was going to sort some cash yesterday as the cheap currency place up by me was open, now i'm kicking myself. That's put a couple of hundred quid onto the trip.. 🙁
Normally Ski pass & rental are part of the package (if you needed to rent).
Good god man 🙄
Normally Ski pass & rental are part of the package (if you needed to rent).
Optional extras, not included as a given.
Nazi Gold!
all buried in the Jura canton
Shhh
interesting... i often tour through CH in the summer (in a van, supporting some roadies, eat & sleep in the van to keep costs down) for a tour operator. already annoying when your coffee suddenly costs 7€ and a bit of strudel 8€. wonder what it is going to be like now?
i can see myself stocking up in Austria and living like a pauper for a week.
however, swiss farmers already have the problem that they cannot sell their produce to neighbouring countries as the franc is too strong.
I remember when it was 4SFr to the pound.
I am quite old though.
@ninfan - to answer your question on the other thread ...
Swiss Franc was being artificially "held down" in value by their government worried about a highly valued currency negatively impacting tourism and export businesses. They have now given up as it was costing them a lot of money and the real fundamentals warrant a stronger currency, ie the Swiss economy is doing great and lots of people want to invest there / move their money into Swiss Francs for safety not least as so much of Europe looks in trouble.
As I posted over 15 years the Swiss Franc has doubled in value versus the pound/euro/dollar (will double check but certainly pound) - they are doing something right.
@donald - you must be old or have been paying more attention 😀 . I recall 2.90 and am 51.9
Cheers Jambalaya
The benefits of not having a huge reliance on export markets I guess?
I'm off to Costco to panic buy large jars of Nutella!
Nutella is Italian nin
Think of the rainforest (palm oil) and your waistline.
It's going to cost our firm a shed load more for spares now as all our milling equipent is Swiss(Buhler)and their prices are always in CHF.
Edit just looked at XE.com and its changed a bit but not that much (yet)
1.535 8th Jan - 1.555 now though the 12hr graph shows 1.55 to 1.50
Balls, thought nestle had bought it.
Well I'm not stocking up on Rolex, DT forks and BMC frames, that's for sure.
Those Assos prices are going to be even more nuts now.
Also interestingly as the UCI is based in Switzerland, all fines for riders are in CHF, so they'll get rather more pricey now.
The benefits of not having a huge reliance on export markets I guess?
There are a number of Swiss businesses which will suffer as a result of this; Richemont comes to mind (maker of your standard STW watch amongst other things) as their cost base is largely CHF. Others will be ok, Syngenta for example has less than 15% of the cost base exposed to the Swiss franc and has a fairly large swiss asset base but reports in USD. It will be interesting to see how it all pans out but I suspect tourism will be the major loser here albeit I don't know how much that contributes to swiss gdp.
I think it was 1976 or 1977 Jambalaya.
Tourism in Swiss GDP is ~3% in recent years
So they really couldn't give a fig about this
@ninfan as an aside look up the history of Nutella, basically a family business with the product invented/perfected by the founder. The town became Nutella central for a while !
i can see a lot of tourists being put off spending their money there. tourism may only account for 3%, but for those that depend upon it it'll hurt. not that i've got much sympathy for them....
not sure if the country is 50% prettier than its neighbours as it its prices would have you believe.
@alpin - Verbier and Zermatt are cheaper than Coucheval, well they were before the fx move. Not sure why you have no sympathy for Swiss people working in the tourist industry
it was stronger in 2011 (1.17 at it strongest) and I seem to remember in the mid nineties it did something silly like this (Ok only 1.8) and it destroyed the english travel market - certainly in Zermatt where i was
£ / CHF has immediately rebounded almost all the way back up after this morning's announcement. Now sitting at 1.50 CHF / £ compared to 1.55 yesterday.
It's people from the Eurozone travelling to Switzerland that need to worry about this.
I wouldn't care if it went up 80% in the coming days....
Nothing is going to stop me drinking Coronas and eating Tandoori pizza in the Le Fer a Cheval, Verbier.
Plan to get in there early and get myself tucked in around the corner. With luck it'll be clear day and we'll be able to see the mountains across the valley and beyond.... happy days
Forget my previous post, £ / CHF has dropped off a cliff in the last hour or so...
wonder how much of this was due to russian money running for cover/avoiding sanctions putting stress on the swiss euro peg.
It's people from the Eurozone travelling to Switzerland that need to worry about this.
=(
@ jam
not much sympathy when you see the prices you are charged, when just over the hill in Italy/Austria things are about 50% cheaper and the people seem a lot friendlier (and i can speak fluent German with the miserable sods).
at least Andy will be happy with his investment.
But not Schweizer Deutsch though @aplin 😉
@Klunk - indeed up anything from £3m-£4m equivalent depending on what you think was the purchase price (wide range of estimates from £8m-£12m)
@Ro5ey one of my favourite spots that, you can get lost for a whole evening in one of those corners 8) Great on the terrace in the Spring and the road next to it is the start point for a few decent bike trails to the bottom in the summer.
ach, ichk kan auchk ein bissl was sprechken und verstehen tu ichk auchk....
The T/O may well have used the money market hedge funds to insure against this sort of thing. You can effectively bet against the market kicking you in the nuts . Whilst the cost is still there , its not going to be 20% .
At least thats what my cousin did when he was company secretrary for MyTravel.
Ro5ey, you will have a great time as lots of fresh snow is coming this weekend. I am watching the storm brewing from my window.
For tour operators in Switzerland this will be a huge hit. It may seem to people coming here that they are being overcharged, however everything costs more here. Food is double the price in france, italy, spain or Austria and I am sure minimum wages there are half of what we pay our staff. Competing with other european companies can be crippling.
For a small operator like us this will be devastating. No-one wants sympathy but we are certainly not and never have been ripping anyone off.
For now, at least I have my ski pass.
An ex client of mine took out his mortgage in Swiss Francs as the rate was better a few years ago. Wondering how he's feeling today! 😯