Leading luxury hotels in Switzerland are looking for more affluent middle-class Chinese tourists.

Siro Barino, managing director of Swiss Deluxe Hotels, an association consisting of 38 most exclusive luxury hotels in Switzerland, told China Daily, that Chinese tourists have witnessed a significant growth in recent years while their choice has seen a major shift from economy hotels to luxurious ones.

Barino was on a trip to Beijing and Shanghai to promote the niche of the members of the association, which generated 16 percent of the revenue out of the some 5,200 hotels in the northern European country last year. He also indicated more such promotion events are in the pipeline.

Statistics indicated that the overall revenue of Swiss hotels slipped 2 percent last year while the five-star segment still sustained its robust growth momentum. Chinese tourists contributed a large share to the revenue, as their arrival to the five-star hotels saw a growth of 25 percent in 2012 followed by the visitors from the Gulf countries, Brazil and India.

Chinese tourists’ overnight stay in Switzerland last year surged to 700,000, a growth of 280 percent compared with the figure of 2005. Barino projected that the figure is expected to jump to 1 million in 2013 and 2 million in 2020.