The findings come in a report from the Swiss Association of Language Travel Agents (SALTA) released last week, which is based on the bookings of SALTA’s 11 members (representing 90% of the market) and market-share weighted. While it does not reveal total numbers, it does give a useful snapshot of student preferences.

It found that, among all language travel destinations, the UK catered to the majority of Swiss students in 2011 with 21.6% (around the same as in 2010), while the US catered to 19.3% – up almost 4%.

Other destinations for Swiss learners saw their market shares shrink slightly, including Australia which fell from about 10% to 9.4%; France 9.2 to 8.2%; and Canada 7.4 to 6.9%.

A spokesperson for SALTA put the US boom down to the strong Swiss franc. “The USA has grown so much because of the favourable exchange rate. At the moment, not only the are the expenses in the US cheap for Swiss people, but also the flights,” they said.

The US interest is most apparent when viewed in the context of English language-providing countries only. At 28% of the market it appears neck and neck with the UK’s 29%.

However, gains and falls in some markets may have been balanced out by longer course durations – a good example being Australia, where programmes lasted an average 7.63 weeks. This was followed by Canada with courses of 6.34 weeks, the US 6 weeks, and UK 4.8, with the average length of stay on the most popular countries on mainland Europe averaging at 2.8 weeks.

The number of Spanish language learners also grew from 6% to more than 8%

“Most of the students who go to Australia and New Zealand tend to stay longer than in Europe, the USA and Canada. That means, those going to Australasia combine their language studies with a longer trip,” said SALTA’s spokesperson.

In other findings, the share of Swiss said to have learnt English (the most studied language overall) fell from around 67.2% to 62.7%, while numbers taking French increased from 8.76% to 13.10%.

The number of Spanish language learners also grew from 6% to more than 8%, while the share studying Italian fell from 10% to 4%.

Swiss English language learners were found to be far more likely to take the Cambridge ESOL certificate (46.1%) than TOEFL (1.46%) due to Cambridge’s strong reputation in Switzerland.

In addition, the number combining language learning abroad with activities such as cooking, sports or business studies was said to be growing.