The picturesque Swiss mountain village of Lauterbrunnen groans with a certain kind of tourists: those who stop by just for a cell phone photo and leave. The municipality is now thinking about whether, like Venice, it can be the first in Switzerland to introduce an entrance fee. “We need a solution, there needs to be a steering measure,” said mayor Karl Näpflin to the German Press Agency on Thursday. The considerations had received a great response in the Swiss media.
“Cell phone tourists” are not welcome in Lauterbrunnen
According to Näpflin, the only people who are a thorn in the community’s side are those he calls “Staubach cell phone tourists.” This refers to people who rush through the village in their car to the Staubach waterfall, take a selfie and drive off again.
Only visitors who come by car and do not stay overnight should pay the fee. In high season that’s 6,000 to 8,000 per day. “We don’t get any added value from them, just trouble,” says Näpflin. Many ignored traffic rules, clogged the streets and trespassed on private property. Locals are already moving away, regular guests no longer want to come.
Village lives from tourism
Lauterbrunnen lives practically 100 percent from tourism and guests are welcome, emphasizes the mayor. The community, which also includes towns such as Wengen and Mürren, is very satisfied with the regular guests. There are 25,000 beds with only 2,600 residents.
Näpflin wants to have it checked whether a fee could be charged via a cell phone app and whether there is a legal basis for this. Jürg Stettler, Professor of Tourism at the University of Lucerne, sees incentive taxes as a useful instrument.
“We are still one of the authentic mountain villages”
However, he considers the five euros that Venice now charges on some days to be too low, as he told the Swiss broadcaster SRF. The Jungfrau Railways, which take more than a million day guests a year to the almost 3,500 meter high Jungfraujoch, including from Lauterbrunnen, have expanded the feeder railways so that fewer guests arrive by car, as a spokeswoman says.
Lauterbrunnen is located in the Jungfrau-Aletsch UNESCO World Heritage Area. The area is a skier’s paradise in winter and a hiker’s paradise in summer. “We are still one of the authentic mountain villages,” says Näpflin. “We want to preserve flora and fauna. I don’t want to have to be told in 30 years: You have ruined everything.”
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