GENEVA, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Most Swiss prefer handwritten letters to emails when they want to express love to their partners, the official Swissinfo website reported on Sunday.

    To find out more about whether the Swiss prefer putting pen to paper or finger to keyboard, Swiss Post contacted more than 1,000 private and business customers recently, Swissinfo said.

    According to the result of survey, three-quarters of those questioned said that letters were more personal and pleasant than emails. And most agreed that new technologies had made communication more superficial.

    A letter's value seems to lie in its personal aspect. When it comes to sending a wedding invitation or declaration of love, for example, only 1 percent and 2 percent of people would use email, respectively.

    There is also widespread distrust of the use of email for sending information such as bank account and salary statements.

    Despite higher costs and delivery times, unlike email, a letter is rarely overlooked, Swissinfo said.

    But overall, the volume of letters posted in Switzerland continues to slowly dwindle compared with the millions of emails sent every day.

    Last year Swiss Post delivered 2.76 billion letters compared with 2.81 billion the previous year, and since 2000, 42 percent fewer letters have been handed in at post offices. Swiss Post expects this trend to continue.