Swiss Village Considering Entry Fee to Curb Overtourism

Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland.

Venice and Amsterdam aren’t the only places in Europe where residents are seeking to curb tourism.

The small Swiss village of Lauterbrunnen—population 2,400—is also considering charging travelers a tourist tax to visit the village, which has become popular on social media for its charm and the nearby scenic Staubbach Falls.

According to SwissInfo, which is a branch of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR, the charming small town has been overrun with visitors, mostly those who come to photograph its scenic areas, leading to road congestion, trash-covered streets and higher rent as more residences are turned into short-term rentals such as Airbnbs.

Local authorities are considering whether or not to charge a visitor fee of between 5-10 Swiss francs, or the equivalent of US$5.50 to $10.99 via a smartphone app, which would be required for daily visitors, but not those who have booked stays or tours in Lauterbrunnen, or for those who took public transportation.

“It’s very challenging to implement such an entry fee in a public space such as a village or valley,” said Fabian Weber, a tourism researcher at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts to SwissInfo.

“We don’t have much experience and we don’t know if it works. My assumption is that it would probably not have a huge impact on the numbers of tourists, but at least it could raise money that could be invested in measures to better manage visitor flows or capacities, or compensate for damages. Most tourism fees up to now don’t really curb the numbers. But they give some leeway when it comes to managing tourism development.”

Destinations across Switzerland, and indeed across Europe, are feeling the negative effects of too many travelers visiting at once, and often simply to take photos at spots made famous by social media influencers, leading many to implement entry fee systems, create barriers that block social media-popular views that impede natural flows of traffic or congest sidewalks, and implement new regulations against overtourism's harm on important natural landmarks or historical sites.