Switzerland Today

Dear Swiss Abroad,

Ticino tourism, an exploding fondue set, and Gérard Depardieu feature in Tuesday’s briefing from Bern.

© Keystone / Christian Beutler

In the news:  A low unemployment rate, Zelensky at WEF, losses for the Swiss National Bank, this year’s Wakker Prize for preserving Swiss heritage, and an exploding fondue.

• Last year the average unemployment rate in Switzerland was 2%, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) said today. This is 0.2 percentage points lower than 2022. The last time the unemployment rate was lower was in 2001, at 1.7%. In absolute figures, an average of 93,536 people were registered as unemployed last year.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will attend next week’s annual gathering of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, the organisers announced today. It will be Zelensky’s first visit to Switzerland since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
• The Swiss National Bank expects an annual loss of around CHF3 billion ($3.5 billion) for 2023, it said today in preliminary results. The franc’s appreciation weighed on profits from equity and bond portfolios in foreign currencies, and the institution also had to pay interest to banks.
• The Swiss Heritage Society’s Wakker Prize for 2024 has been awarded to the Birsstadt association. Ten municipalities in the Basel agglomeration have joined forces to address the spatial planning and building culture issues caused by uncoordinated growth. The Swiss Heritage Society spoke of a “successful cross-municipal and cross-cantonal collaboration”.
• A fondue heater exploded at a home in Chur, eastern Switzerland, at the weekend. Several people suffered burns and two were taken to Zurich University Hospital. The cantonal public prosecutor’s office and police are investigating the cause of the accident.

Keystone

Ticino wants you! More specifically, it wants more tourists from the US, the UK, Scandinavia, France, Benelux, and the Gulf states.

“Our tourism profile is rich and diverse,” Simone Patelli, president of the tourism office of Switzerland’s southern Italian-speaking canton, tells us in an interview. “It combines lakes and mountains as well as varied cultural and culinary traditions, all within a small area. Our attractions are not just limited to the Locarno Film Festival. In short, we offer Mediterranean hospitality coupled with Swiss safety.” In the picture is a couple enjoying la dolce vita in Lugano.

It’s a good pitch, but I don’t need convincing – I love Ticino. However, the canton can’t just sit on its laurels and wait for tourists to turn up, especially when neighbouring Austria and Italy have plenty of stunning locations. Patelli says they have launched various campaigns and collaborations, but they “favour tourists who are interested in exploring Ticino in depth – and who respect our environment. We don’t want mass tourism or people simply passing through”.

Keystone / Guillaume Horcajuelo

The decision of Swiss public television, RTS, to stop showing films starring French actor Gérard Depardieu continues to generate heated debate.

What are the issues, and why do some Swiss newspapers think RTS has “shot itself in the foot” and is “playing a dangerous game”? In this explainer I look at the backlash to a documentary in which Depardieu makes some offensive comments and comes across as particularly unlikeable – and the backlash to the backlash.