Switzerland targets rich tourists but at what cost?

The world is still a very unsafe place – the possibility of conflict, climate change, and recession dominates the headlines. But for some people, things are going well – rich.

Despite the global turmoil, the number of billionaires in the world is increasing and the individual property of each of them is also increasing.

So what to do with all that money? The growing trend for the final luxury experience is a clue that is very rich what they are with their cash. This is an opportunity, especially for the tourist industry.

In Switzerland, who has long cultivated a reputation for prolonged luxury, the number of five -star hotels is growing faster than any other category. Many of them were built in the early 20th century – the Grand Belle Apok Mahal served an emerging class of privileges, mainly English tourists.

Today, renovated for the highest standards, there is no guest desire in those hotels. There are luxury spas, gourmet restaurants and designer suits with panoramic views of the Alps. Some people offer “Ski Butler”, who carry the guests from the slope, carry the ski, and even help on their shoes.

The major markets are America, Gulf State, China and Southeast Asia. In particular, American guests, Swiss Hotel Businessmen, say, expect full five-star treatment, including serving a 24-hour room, so that they can order food in the middle of the night.

Meanwhile, China and India are emerging markets where the first groups to travel from both countries are richest. Switzerland is very keen to come at the beginning of that trend.

But the five -star offer comes with a heavy price tag, so where does it leave those who are not billionaires? Marcus Berzer of Switzerland Tourism says that the strategy is not to focus a completely high-end guests, but to keep a difficult eye on the figures.

Swiss lives in five -star hotels, making about 8% of all overnites, but in them guests contribute at least 25% of the total revenue of Switzerland from tourism.

“The number speaks for herself,” says Shri Berger. “High economic importance justifies a commitment for luxury guests.”

What is more, he adds, Switzerland, with its high-laborer, high-value economy, cannot compete with less expensive neighbors, especially now that Swiss Frank is so strong.

“Switzerland has never tried to compete at prices,” Mr. Berger says. “Always cheap somewhere.”

Instead, meditation is at quality, service and additional value like those ski butler. In turn, guests coming to five-star hotels also make a good deal in the rest of the economy, spending grandly in Michelin-starred restaurants and boutique shops that are also being a feature in Swiss Alpine Resorts.

But this is not a completely win-win situation. In some of the most famous up-market resorts of Switzerland, such as St. Moritz or Poritors, long-standing concerns are that luxury focus on luxury is to pay a value out of the market.

A common challenge is finding housing for hundreds of hotels and restaurant employees required to provide a five -star service.

They sometimes find themselves commuting, late at night when cocktail bar and restaurants have finally stopped, long trips in other villages where housing on waiter’s salary is cheaper.

Monica Bandi, which leads the Tourism Research Unit at the Center for Regional Development of Burn University, sees Switzerland’s pitch as a great balance act to high-ended guests. It is about “volume vs. quality”, she says.

More tourists are not necessarily better, she believes. Instead, high expenses by existing numbers can be positive.

And, she says, Switzerland needs to “look out for the tipping point, where destinations actually lose their character”.

Questions about a tipping point are currently being asked at Wennen’s resort, the world is famous for its Loborn Ski Race, and its decades with the British Skier “Down Hill Only” Ski Club celebrated its 100th anniversary this year.

And this year too, Vengen is opening its first five -star hotel, and also plans for the five -star campus of the serving “Hotel Apartment”. They will be sold to rich tourists who want a luxury holiday home in the Alps, and they can also be rented on the owners when they are absent.

Calling the project a hotel, it exploits a flaws in strict laws against the “cold bed” of Switzerland’s holiday bed. In principle, the law does not exceed them more than 20% of the resort of the resort.

The Swiss Heritage Society has formally objected to the Vennen schemes, because, spokesperson Simon Weiss claims that the project is not actually a hotel. “It looks like a specific holiday home complex … there is no integration in the community.”

Essential public places that will be in a hotel – a restaurant and a spa – are planned, but they will all be underground. Priority of the design, Sri Weiss Dear, is for private luxury apartments that can only occupy for a few weeks a year. “The design is unacceptable,” he says.

Some Vengen locals also suspect. “It’s not St. Moritz,” one told Swiss media, “Vennen is not posh”.

Vennen’s Tourism Director Rolf Vegmular agrees with that evaluation, but says that the trend towards luxury housing will not change the character of the resort. “We are not going to roam the guests suddenly,” they say.

Vengen, he explains, is only accessible by the train, therefore, unlike St. Moritz, there will be no Bentalis or Roll-Royce to take parking locations. Even if they can display their wealth, Mr. Vegmular believes that “our guests would not want to show what they have”.

There are also visitors in the resort who come back year -to -half, contribute to integration, who worry about losing Mr. Weiss. “Some families are coming from generations,” called Mr. Vegmular. ‘Local people know them, and it is good. ,

Among them, Brian Boln, Down Hill only only is a keen member of the club, who have been coming to Wennen for more than 50 years. He loves it, but worries that some “attraction has gone from place … it is made”.

But like Switzerland tourism, most of the Vengen, see investment in alpine resorts as positive. These villages were not very poor a century ago. A 19th English guide for Swiss Alps wrote that “most children are beggars”.

In recent years, the global trade rules that limit agricultural subsidies have forced several small alpine dairy forms to close. Tourism, in winter and summer, is very important for the Swiss economy, especially for hilly communities.

And, as Mr. Berger of Switzerland Tourism explains, while the five -star area is growing, the three -star hotels are still the largest category. “We have one to five star (in Vennen),” Sri Vegmular. “This is a good thing in a resort.”

And while people with unlimited funds to spend on luxury travel are still increasing in a small minority, their number and their money. Switzerland’s approach – not cheap, but better, not more people, simply seems to pay.