Effects of Tourism on Ski Resorts in Switzerland, Essay Example

Switzerland is one of the world’s most famous countries for skiing. Much of its holiday industry revolves around providing winter sports facilities at some of the highest mountains in Europe. This paper will examine some of the consequences of the country’s reliance on winter sports tourism, and what effects it has on the areas of the country in which ski resorts are located. Several aspects of their effects will be looked at. Tourism always has an impact on several different aspects of a place. In this case, the effects on the natural environment, the built environment, agriculture, transport links, population migration and economic development will be examined. The effects of tourism in each of these spheres will be assessed to see if tourism overall has a positive effect on Switzerland, generally speaking, while negatives will also be pointed out if they are present.

Firstly, the issue of the effect of tourism on the natural environment of the Swiss Alps, will be examined. The Swiss Alps have been a popular tourist destination since the 1860s, when British tourists began to discover the delights of winter tourism in the Swiss Alps. Before this period, the British had also been prominent among nationalities who visited the mountains in summer. From 1860 onwards, downhill skiing became increasingly popular as a sport, although it would not become generally popular until the 1920s. Until that point, sports such as tobogganing, skating and curling, as well as others, occupied the attention of tourists. By the mid-19th century, towns such as Mürren, in western Switzerland, were beginning to see the development and building of many hotels.(Swissworld.org, n.d.) Indeed, there are more hotel rooms in the village than there are permanent residents, to this day. Obviously, this kind of development, which was matched by a rising interest in the Alps as a summer destination, would go on to have a significant impact on the natural environment of the mountains.

The setting up of ski resorts of this kind obviously had a significant effect on the natural environment of the mountains. Machinery such as gondolas and ski lifts, needed to transport skiers to the heights of the slopes, need to be constructed, while ski runs are shaped and areas are paved. This reduces the amount of natural habitat available for animal and plant species. This, in turn, affects the biological richness and diversity of the area. When additional ski runs are built, extending current ski resorts, then this damage is obviously increased. The development of resorts also means that more transport infrastructure needs to be built in order to enable tourists to more easily reach the ski slopes. This causes yet further disruption to the natural environment, and can also lead to the degrading of the air and atmosphere in the mountains, as more chemicals are discharged in the emissions of vehicles. When ski competitions are held, even more structures need to be built. These can destroy local vegetation and increase the disruption which local animal species are subject to over the course of a year. Snow is not always present at ski resorts either, and sometimes has to be artificially manufactured by a process using ‘snow cannons’, which fire drops of water into cold air to create a kind of snow. This process often runs against local weather patterns, and may cause yet more disruption for local animal life. (Wipf, Rixen, Fischer, Schmid and Stoeckli, page 311). It also uses an incredible amount of water, which can drain supplies for other uses, such as agriculture. The loss of water in the natural environment can also lead to damage for aquatic flora and fauna such as fish, as well as those animals which rely on aquatic flora and fauna for food, such as many species of bird.

These effects are all negative as far as the local environment is concerned. Measures are being taken to address the negative effects though, with a greater consciousness of the needs of the natural environment beginning to be felt across the tourist industry. Indeed, some summer and winter tourism now focuses on what has become known as ‘sustainable tourism’, with the focus on conservation and protecting wildlife so that visitors can enjoy it. Many areas of the mountains are now protected, whether through the allocation of specific areas as protected, restriction of dog access, quiet zones and other types of protection. Hunting regulations also operate in many Swiss Alpine tourist areas to help reinforce the protection given to local species. (Protected Areas and Mountains, n.d.). Greater advice is also given to winter sports fans to enable them to alter their own behaviour and attitudes to better protect the habitats of animals like moorland grouse and woodland creatures such as lynx. This means that some of the more negative impacts created by tourism, both winter and summer, can be mitigated. Organisations such as the Wild Wildlife Fund (WWF) are working hard to inform snowboarders and skiers about the potential for harm to the natural environment that their activities can cause. Athletes are taught about the local flora and fauna, as well as given advice on how to look after their own safety while exploring in the woods. They are also taken on a trip by public transport to a resort in order to show them that more environmentally friendly ways of travel are possible. An animal such as a lynx can be scared by a chance encounter in the woods, and use as much as 60 per cent more energy to escape from a person. This can obviously have disastrous impacts in their existence. Snowboarders are taught by the WWF about things like this, and also how bad rubbish like banana peel can be for the forests and slopes. (Pressure on the Swiss Alps, page 2).

It does not mean that the mountains are now a pristine environment once again though, as much building has taken place as a result of the expansion and growth of ski resorts in the Swiss Alps. The way in which many towns and villages in the mountains have developed is directly due to the effects of tourism in skiing areas of the mountains. The massive growth of hotel accommodation in the mountains began, as stated above, in the late 19th century, when the idea of Switzerland as a winter holiday destination began to grow in popularity. This would have huge consequences for both the natural and built environments of the mountains, which had been generally sparsely populated until this point, with few large towns and built up areas. There was also little in the way of public transport infrastructure, and few roads. Only 16 towns in Switzerland have more than 30,000 residents, even today, so much of life in the country is not taking place in urban areas. Indeed, many people in Switzerland used to move away from the mountains to work, but that pattern has been reversed in recent years. This is partly due to the number of people who want to leave the city for a more rural way of life, but also in part due to the impact of tourism on the mountain areas of the country (Swissworld.org).

The amount of building work that needs to be done when a resort is established is massive. As well as the actual structure of the ski facilties, such as pistes and ski lifts, which need to be built out on the slopes, there is also a massive need for accommodation. Obviously, this has changed the architectural landscape of many of the villages and towns in the mountains. There are huge networks of buildings where not so long ago there was simply mountain and woodland. This has also changed the essential character of the towns and villages, with modern development becoming much more prominent that the more traditional kinds of housing. Many towns and villages in Switzerland are actually famous for their charming arhictecture, but this can sometimes seem to be obscured or even forgotten by many visitors who come in search of winter sports thrills. The Swiss have a genuine love for traditional architecture though, as well as a rich tradition of producing architects, and have therefore worked hard to maintain some sort of balance between the richness of this tradition and the demands of an expanding tourist sector. In the village of Les Diablerets, the relative importance of agriculture in relation to tourism has clearly changed in the years since the 1930s, when tourism first started to really take hold in the region. In order to prevent the kind of damage that out of control development can do to a place, there are strict planning controls in effect. The local councils promote measures which enable many local people to rent out their spare rooms and even farm buildings to visitors. This means that there is a wider range of more interesting accommodation available for tourists, and it also helps to get more funds into the pockets of local people, rather than international developers with little regard for local people (Latter, page 3).

The effect of tourism on the buildings of the local environment of the mountains is not always as positive as this though. As well as ugly over-development, which has occurred in some areas, there is a twisting of tradition into something different and cheap, in order to try and exploit opportunities to make money out of tourists. One example of this occurs at ‘Heidi’s House’ in Maienfield. Here, tourists can sit in Heidi’s front room, and have pictures taken in the cottage where Heidi was meant to have lived. In actual fact, Heidi was a fictional character, and never really existed (Latter, page 5). This twisting of facts into tourist orientated cliches has also occurred elsewhere in the country, and shows how tourism can change local cultures and buildings into something cheap and a little bit tacky.

Perhaps one of the most important impacts of tourism in Switzerland though has been in terms of agriculture. This links into the architectural changes that tourism has wrought, as many of the buildings which existed prior to the onset of mass tourism in the country were agricultural in nature and purpose. The mountain villages were largely closed worlds, with little to do with other settlements or large cities. As Latter states, “In the closed world of the village there were few activities other than farming. The odd clock-maker and teacher supplemented a nineteenth-century workforce which was primarily dedicated to raising dairy cattle and other livestock on rich local grass to produce milk, butter and, particularly, cheese. The seasonal rhythm of this agricultural society was determined by the ‘remuage’, or transhumance, which might happen seven or eight times a year, as cows and goats were moved to find the best pastures. The spatial effects of ownership or grazing rights over small and disparate parcels of land at different altitudes necessitated that each family construct three or four buildings which they could inhabit at different times of year. At the beginning of this century, the sight of all these buildings prompted the first foreign tourists to assume, erroneously, that the valley had a large population.” (page 2.)

By the 1970s, this pattern was changing, as the effects of tourism began to be felt in the local economy and population. “A comparison of employment figures from 1968 to 1972 shows a 5 percent reduction in agricultural work, a 5 percent drop in construction jobs, and an 8 percent rise in tourist-associated occupations.” (Latter, page 3). This change in the figures shows the effect that tourism was already beginning to have on Switzerland’s mountain regions. The change has been ongoing since that time. The nature of farms in the country has also altered dramatically since the onset of mass tourism in the Alps. There has also been a growing awareness that farming practises can also help to drive tourism levels, and add another type of experience to those on offer to tourists, especially in the summer months when there is no skiing. Many small farmers have also become integrated as part-time workers in the tourist economy, whether that be by renting out rooms to visitors, or farmers working on ski lifts or other piste related jobs. (Latter, page 3). This has played a part in retaining the population of young people in the more remote villages, helping to prevent the kind of depopulation of rural areas which has occurred in many parts of Europe over the last three decades or so. As well as this, the Swiss government has a number of subsidies and other means of help in place so that farmers can continue to operate in their traditional areas. With agriculture, especially dairy agriculture, so important to Swiss culture and tradition, as well as to the economy, this is a good way of preserving the best of what tradition can offer while also providing modern economic opportunities.

The continuing influence of the ski industry on the development of transport links in Swiss resorts was continuing to be felt as recently as 2011. “Resorts are expanding as ski lift companies cooperate to offer access to more slopes and varied terrain, and many are embracing diversification.” (Deilotte, 2011). This shows that the ski tourism industry is continuing to have a massive effect on the transport infrastructure of the Alpine regions of Switzerland. Even as visitor numbers decline, and the number of summer visitors seems to grow, the need for additional transport links is still driving much of the environmental change in Swiss ski resorts. This continues to have an influence on the natural environment, increasing the disruption experience by local flora and fauna. The noise pollution caused by ski transport infrastructure can also be significant, and more areas of woodland are destroyed in order to make way for more ski lifts or gondolas. As the Deilotte report from 2011 into ski resorts states, though: “Any development, however, will likely need to go hand-in-hand with a commitment to maintaining the distinctiveness and uniqueness of the Swiss Alpine skiing experience. The charm and variety of resorts is likely to continue to be important in attracting high-value international tourists. In enhancing their offering, Swiss ski resorts must ensure they maintain their unique competitive advantage in a global skiing industry.” This shows that even in those sections of society which are focused on economic exploitation of resources there is some concern about the continuing negative impact that ski tourism can have. The balance between maintaining agricultural lifestyles, local culture, the unqiueness of the environment and the beauty of the region, and economic development, is a fragile one. That the ski industry still has concerns such as these shows that a balance has not yet been fully reached, even after a century and a half or so of the winter tourism industry’s development in Switzerland.

Obviously, one of the most dramatic influences which tourism has exerted on Switzerland is in how much transport has developed and changed. This has affected the country’s landscape hugely, not least in the development of its airports. Geneva airport is one of the busiest airports in western Europe, and actually straddles two countries, being located partly over the border with France. This development obviously had major implications for the major cities in which the airports were located, boosting the amount of economic activity in these regions significantly. But it was the infrastructure which linked the cities to the mountain resorts which obviously had the most impact on the nation of Switzerland itself. The Swiss travel system now consists of 26,000 kilometres of routes, consisting of rail links, roads and waterways. This makes it the densest public transport network in the world, according to Myswitzerland.com (retrieved 03/21/2013). The travel system includes a number of integrated tickets which travellers can buy, linking different parts of the transport network. This integrated approach to travel is largely the result of a country which is trying to make itself as efficiently welcoming as possible to foreign visitors. Winter sports, by their nature, take place in inaccessible parts of high mountains. This has meant that Switzerland not only needed to build good railways and roads to the mountains, but also make sure that people could use them relatively simply. In many cases, the actual journey has become an integral part of the experience of going on holiday in Switzerland.

The use of panorama trains shows just how integral the experience of public transport in Switzerland has become, largely as a result of tourism. These trains allow travellers to sit in viewing galleries so that they can better see the great mountain panoramas which are on offer along the routes. The actual experience of travelling to and through the mountains has actually changed how visitors can perceive and enjoy the countryside. This is a much more passive way of enjoying the mountain scenery, but it is often used to complement the kind of experiences which visitors can enjoy once they reach their destination. It helps to show just what a major role transport and types of transport now play in Switzerland, largely thanks to the influence of the tourist industry. The Glacier Express and Bernina Express are two famous examples of journeys where travellers can experience a panorama train.

Migration of people has been another area which has been influenced by the growth of the ski tourism industry in Switzerland over the last 150 years or so. The tradition in Switzerland had been for people to move away from the country and to the cities to find work, while there was also a long tradition of emigration from the country to elsewhere in the world. Many Swiss served as mercenary soldiers in the period before the onset of the growth of tourism, for example. That pattern has now changed somewhat though, with more people staying in rural areas thanks to farm subsidies and the availability of seasonal work in the ski industry, as Latter has explained (page 3). The industrial development of Switzerland in the late 19^th century also saw more people from outside the country arrive, as well as encouraging internal migration. More people from abroad have arrived in Swiss cities too, largely from nearby European countries, but also from elsewhere in the world. Around 30 per cent of Swiss now have parents who originated from elsewhere in the world (Swiss Federal Statistical Office, ‘Population with an immigrant background, 2012). This would suggest that tourism has played a significant part in opening up Switzerland to people from the rest of the world. As tourism has grown in Switzerland, so has immigration. Internal migration also continues to play a part in population trends. As people have become more exposed to the country as a wonderland of mountains, so they have been drawn to live there in order to exploit the economic opportunities on offer.

As with many other countries in the West, Switzerland’s economy has found itself in some difficulty in recent years, with many sectors coming under pressure as a result of lower demand from overseas. Tourism, unlike some other sectors of the Swiss economy though, has managed to keep itself in better shape, largely as a result of strong domestic demand and the willingness of visitors from Asia to visit the Alpine country and spend money (Allen, 2012). This has happened even as visits from people from countries such as the United Kingdom and Germany have declined considerably. The quality of experience which Switzerland can offer is still clearly something that many visitors, even from very distant countries such as China and Korea, want to experience. This shows how deeply rooted in the Swiss economy tourism has become, and how strongly the impact of the advent of ski tourism continues to resonate. Tourism has also been kept afloat by domestic demand from Swiss holidaymakers, who have been helped out by the large number of holiday homes which were built in the last two decades or so (Allen 2012).

Many of these additional holiday homes were actually treated with a fair degree of negativity and suspicion by the general population, who saw them as ugly and as eyesores on the mountain landscape. Nevertheless, the availability of so many holiday homes has meant that many Swiss people have used them to go on holiday in their own country, keeping the contribution levels of tourism to local economies very high. As Allen (2012) states: “Domestic holidaymakers accounted for just over 44 per cent of all overnight stays in Switzerland last year, but around half of the income in the sector.” One thing which has been noticeable about the newly high numbers of Asian visitors is that they are not so high during the winter season, which is perhaps more to do with visitors from China coming from very crowded urban areas. They are perhaps keener, as a result, to experience the mountains during the warm summer months rather than when the slopes are covered with snow. What long-term effects this might have on the ski tourism industry remains to be seen. As increasing numbers of summer visitors arrive, perhaps the onus will move onto more agricultural and environmentally based tourism, as sustainable travel becomes ever more popular, especially with visitors from Europe. The future might well see more of an emphasis placed on attracting visitors to the kind of ‘agro-tourism’ which has become popular in Italy in recent years, with the emphasis on cuisine and culture rather than wintry sporting thrills. Many visitors may also begin to visit to see wildlife and nature reserves, as climate change begins to exert a more noticeable effect on the weather and the availability of snow at the right times in the resorts.

To conclude, ski tourism continues to exert a massive effect on the economy, environment and population of the Alpine regions of Switzerland, especially western Switzerland. Ski resorts have contributed to environmental damage, and to changes in both the natural and architectural environment of the Alps of Switzerland. The growth of numbers of people who are interested in winter sports has exerted some especially negative effects on local flora and fauna, with snow cannons causing particular disruption. Traditional agriculture has altered its practises and been protected, partly with the aim of boosting certain kinds of tourism. Population trends have changed too, with fewer people leaving rural areas and more seasonal migration to tourist areas. Transport links have massively grown since winter tourism became popular in the mid-19th century, which again has had a huge impact on the environment. But tourism continues to play a massive part in the Swiss economy, with visitors from Asia and domestic tourism helping to keep the industry afloat. With many new visitors arriving in the summer, it remains to be seen how things will change for the ski tourism industry in the Alps. Climate change may yet play a part in altering visitor patterns, with many people from the growing Asian market for visitors preferring the mountains in summer. Some of the massive changes wrought by the winter tourism industry may well be on their way to being reversed, as summer tourism begins to take over.

References

Matthew Allen, Swiss Tourism: a tale of two markets, 02/21/2012 retrieved from: http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/business/Swiss_tourism:_a_tale_of_two_markets.html?cid=32163094, 03/21/2013

Deilotte, Annual Review of Swiss Ski Resorts 2011, retrieved from: http://www.deloitte.com/assets/Dcom-Switzerland/Local%20Assets/Documents/EN/Survey/Ski/ch_en_ski_resort_survey_2011.pdf, 03/21/2013

Rosemary Latter, When tradition becomes luxury: Swiss agriculture, architecture and tourism in symbiosis, retrieved from http://iaste.berkeley.edu/pdfs/10.2f-Spr99latter-sml.pdf, 03/21/2013

Wipf, Sonja; Christian Rixen, Markus Fischer, Bernhard Schmid, Veronika Stoeckli (2005). Effects of ski piste preparation on alpine vegetation, Journal of Applied Ecology 42 (2): 306–316

Pressure on the Swiss Alps, retrieved from http://www.geocases2.co.uk/swissalps2.htm, 03/21/2013

Population with an immigration background, Swiss Federal Statistical Office, 2012, retrieved from: http://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/portal/en/index/themen/01/07/blank/key/04.html

Snow With Respect, retrieved from http://www.sac-cas.ch/umwelt/bergsport-naturschutz.html, 03/21/2013

My Switzerland, http://www.myswitzerland.com/en/transport-travel/getting-around/what-is-swiss-travel-system.html, retrieved 03/21/2013

Swissworld.org, http://www.swissworld.org/en/switzerland/swiss_specials/swiss_mountains/alps_a_year_round_tourist_destination/, retrieved 03/21/2013