For nearly two years, restaurants, hotels, and other parts of the local economy have grappled with the effects of international Geneva job and budget cuts, particularly around the Nations quarter. Two publicly backed studies are now seeking to quantify the losses.

Sébastien Garcia was still a teenager when his mother opened Chez Rosa, a Spanish-French fusion restaurant on rue de Lausanne, just a few minutes’ walk from the UN headquarters. He later took over the business with his wife Stella, adding catering and takeaway meals to a largely international clientele.

The restaurant has become a neighbourhood fixture. But since the layoffs began, Garcia says business has fallen sharply, particularly in the evenings. “Our monthly revenue is down by between CHF10,000 and CHF17,000,” he says. “We’re not bankrupt, but we’ve learned to live with less.”

To attract more local, price-conscious customers, the couple has reworked the menu and introduced cheaper options. “The international crowd is still around, but they’re much more careful with their money. Instead of spending 200 francs on a meal, for example, they’ll spend CHF50,” he adds.

More room at the inn

Adrien Genier, chief executive of Geneva Tourism, also acknowledges international Geneva’s “relatively significant contribution” to Geneva’s attractiveness. “It is estimated to account for around 20 per cent of overnight stays. Its impact on hotel occupancy is real, and even greater in terms of the revenues generated and spending in the local economy,” he adds.

In February, htr hotel revue reported that Marc de Chassey, director general of the Geneva hotel group Manotel, estimated a 15–20 per cent fall in overnight stays linked to the international sector, while Xavier Rey, president of the Société des hôteliers genevois, said occupancy in the three- and four-star segment was down by around five per cent.

Eight months later, Rey says the roughly five per cent decline in occupancy has remained stable. “We have recently observed a change in travel trends. The conflict in the Middle East has also been a considerable blow. Many flights that transit through that region, such as those coming from India or Southeast Asia, have dropped.”

As a result, hotel owners are focusing on other markets, namely Europe, the US, South America and Switzerland, Rey adds.

Geneva Airport has also registered a drop in routes popular with the diplomatic circuit from Geneva to the US and Africa, namely via Ethiopian Airlines, says Ignace Jeanneret, the airport’s spokesperson, without providing numbers.

Ecolint loses students

Meanwhile, Ecolint, the International School of Geneva, has acknowledged a decrease in enrollment. “The financial pressures affecting the United Nations and the wider international sector are having a direct impact on some of the families we serve”, says Mary Zaccaï Parrinello, head of communication.

“We began to see this particularly clearly during the 2024-2025 school year, when uncertainty around employment and funding translated very quickly into changes in enrolment and re-enrolment decisions,” she adds.

The school reported 4,482 pupils in 2024-25, down from 4,530 the previous year and 4,566 in 2022-23. As a result, more students have benefited from the institution’s Relief Fund, designed to provide short-term assistance to families facing unexpected financial difficulty.

“In 2025-2026, approximately 50 students from 35 families received support. The fund represented around CHF300,000, and for 2026-2027 we have increased it by 50 per cent”, notes Zaccaï Parrinello.

At the same time, Ecolint is pressing ahead with a CHF41.6m redevelopment of its La Châtaigneraie campus in the neighbouring canton of Vaud, home to a large expat community. The first phase began in summer 2025 and is scheduled for completion in 2027. The redevelopment has drawn scrutiny from some parents, who have called for an independent audit of the school’s finances. “This project responds to needs identified over 10 years ago”, emphasises Zaccaï Parrinello. “The audit is in process; results are expected in November.”

A squeeze that is hard to quantify

These testimonies come as no surprise to Vincent Subilia, director general of the Geneva Chamber of Commerce (CCIG). Employment in Geneva-based international organisations fell from 25,116 in 2023 to 22,823 in 2026, a 9.1 per cent decline, according to figures published by the Swiss authorities in September. “The contraction in international organisations is the largest collective redundancy Geneva has ever experienced. As a result, we are seeing a general slowdown in economic activity”, says Subilia.

“International Geneva and local Geneva are part of the same ecosystem”, adds Subilia. “Local businesses are currently being penalised by the weakening of international Geneva. One less UN meeting means one less flight, one less night in a hotel, fewer restaurant meals, fewer taxi journeys, and so on.”

Subilia remains optimistic: “The bet I am making is that the city, as the world’s leading international hub, will endure. People come to Geneva looking for a place where trust can be built. There’s no other place on earth that guarantees such diplomatic reliability.”

Several causes at play

In Grand-Saconnex, a municipality that hosts many international organisations, NGOs and diplomatic missions, the effects of job and budget cuts are hard to disentangle from the disruption caused by the ongoing construction of the tram line linking Geneva to Ferney-Voltaire. “Local businesses have been complaining more about the bulldozers than the lack of expat clientele,” says Bérengère Rosset, the municipality’s secretary general.

Sébastien Dutoit, head of economic promotion, echoes that assessment: “The loss of business is being felt, but remains hard to correlate to the multilateral crisis.” Some effects, he adds, may take time to surface because organisations can remain tied to office leases, while affected workers may not leave the region immediately.

Two studies aim to quantify the economic loss

Other sectors are expected to lose business in coming months, such as local cleaning, carpentry or relocation services, says Giovanni Ferro-Luzzi, an associate professor in economics at the University of applied sciences in management and the University of Geneva.

He conducted a study back in 2024 on multinationals as well as international organisations, NGOs and permanent missions. Funded by the Fondation pour Genève, the results concluded that the sector accounted for around 150,000 jobs, or 37 per cent of cantonal employment, and generated roughly 75,000 additional indirect jobs, bringing its total employment footprint close to 60 per cent.

Since then, employment at international organisations has dropped significantly, warranting new analysis. “We are currently doing two studies on the same subject”, Ferro-Luzzi tells Geneva Solutions.

“One is a mandate from the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, following a parliamentary request by national councillor Vincent Maitre, who asked what the impact of USAid cuts on the non-market international sector was. The other is for the Fondation pour Genève. The consortium, which includes the Confederation, will update the figures from the previous study. That study also includes the market sector, meaning multinational companies.”

While the research focuses on Geneva, where most of the sector is concentrated, it extends to Vaud and Bern. “The fiscal impact is not necessarily as large as one might imagine because the institutions themselves do not pay taxes, and many of the people working for them are under special taxation arrangements”, says Ferro-Luzzi.

The broader economic costs remain difficult to assess, but signs are accumulating across a variety of businesses. The study results expected next spring should clarify whether the scattered losses add up to a structural shift in Geneva’s economy.