For a decade and a half, I was among 3 000 participants who travelled to Europe’s highest town for the annual meetings of the World Economic Forum. Since the 1970s, during the last full week of January the Swiss ski resort was briefly transformed into the epicentre of global power. But not in pandemic-hit 2021. Eric Sylvers from our partners at The Wall Street Journal visited Davos to see how the locals are coping without the annual influx of badge-bearing hordes. – Alec Hogg
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Davos this year: Silent streets, good skiing
Locals in the Swiss mountain hamlet savor the absence this January of thronging CEOs, shouting protesters and hovering helicopters. ‘The sense of calm is great.’
Jan. 25, 2021 12:34 pm ET
DAVOS, Switzerland—The World Economic Forum isn’t in Davos this year. The pandemic saw to that. For locals and skiers, it means they get the Alpine village all to themselves, something that normally doesn’t happen in January.
Egon Karcher generally shuns his second home in Davos this time of year. The traffic and pollution created by thousands of delegates trying to put the world right, or at least make connections, is all too much.
“The sense of calm is great” now, said Dr. Karcher, a retired dentist, as he walked his German shepherd past huge snowdrifts in front of the town’s deserted Congress Center, where the talk-fest takes place. “We’ve been here a few times during the WEF, and it can get a little crazy,” he said.
WEF head of programming Lee Howell said the conference will be back in Davos next year. In the meantime, an online series of speeches and roundtables begins today, the day the real-life conference was supposed to start, with speeches by Chinese President Xi Jinping and other heads of state.
With this year’s WEF online, and some meetings moved to Singapore in May, gone are the politicians, business chiefs and investors looking to seal a deal between late-night drinks and early-morning coffees. Gone, too, are the protesters, roadblocks, military jets, hovering helicopters and pop-up meeting centers that take over the Promenade, the town’s main drag.
About 3,000 people usually register for the conference. Around 9,000 more squeeze into the resort, doubling its population, many of them there to assist delegates or participate in side meetings. Speakers have ranged from former President Donald Trump to U2 singer Bono.
While the conference usually lasts just four days, advance teams come two weeks early to build the vast array of temporary structures that take over Davos. Another week is spent tearing them down again, meaning that for almost a month the town looks little like the hamlet it is the rest of the year, nestled some 5,000 feet above sea level in the Alps. A drive across town that normally takes five minutes can run close to an hour.
“Life is better here without the WEF,” said Carmen Federici, who works in a tea shop on the Promenade.
The forum is a particular nuisance for skiers, who miss out on what some consider the best month of the year, with plentiful snow and cold weather bringing the powdery conditions they crave. With so many stores on the Promenade closed due to Covid restrictions, skiers are among the few out-of-towners to be seen.
Some locals say they will miss the income the meetings generate. Many rent out their homes or businesses at high rates. Hansjorg Lenz, who runs two bars in Davos, made a big portion of last year’s income by renting one of them out.
“Davos is still here, we are still alive, and people should know that,” Mr. Lenz said.
Some business managers who rely on the WEF for a chunk of revenue, such as hotel owners, say they expect the forum will have to be re-thought once the pandemic passes because attitudes to mass events might change.
“The Forum needs to find a way to come back in a more intimate way, maybe just in the Congress Center without all the pop-up corporate events,” said Tobias Homberger, chief executive of the luxury Hotel Seehof in Davos. “We also do big events and set up temporary buildings during the Forum, but as I get older, I see the negative aspects of this.”
Fans of Davos point to the serendipity gained when so many political and business leaders cram into a small town with little to do but schmooze.
When Matthew Prince attended his first WEF in 2012, his startup company, Cloudflare Inc.,had 40 employees. After an exhausting day, he said, he and his co-founder were taking stock at an Italian restaurant when its management, tight on space, seated then-Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, former secretary Lawrence Summers and Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg at their table. The five had dinner together.
“The WEF and the encounters we had there taught us to think of Cloudflare as a global company,” said Mr. Prince, who now oversees 1,700 employees as CEO of the cloud-based networking and cybersecurity service provider . “You can’t help but run into interesting people,” he said.
Others say they have felt compelled to come each year against their better judgment.
“You always hate Davos, but you always come back,” said Fabrizio Pagani, global head of strategy at Muzinich & Co., a New York investment firm. “The best thing to do in Davos is to stand on the Promenade and people-watch.”
Then there is Barry Colson, who has played piano in bars at Davos during the WEF for 26 years. Now he performs for Zoom parties from his basement back home in Nova Scotia, pining for the years when the world’s elite gathered to hear him play.
I miss everybody,” said Mr. Colson. “I miss the CEOs, I miss the billionaires, I miss the world leaders. I miss everything.”
Write to Eric Sylvers at [email protected]
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Appeared in the January 26, 2021, print edition as ‘Davos, Minus Bono and Xi? Paradise.’
