Industry News
The World Economic Forum is back in the Swiss Alps. Every year for 54 years the world’s political and industrial elite descend on the small alpine village of Davos and turn the ski resort into the schmooze-fest of the movers and shakers in the world’s global economy. Heralded as ‘The place where leaders meet,’ the ski village hosts around 3,000 influential guests through a week of panels, presentations, and invite-only break-out sessions.
This year, more than 60 international heads of state are in attendance, such as Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky, Israel’s Isaac Herzog, and France’s Emmanuel Macron. The United States is sending Secretary of State Antony Blinken, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, and Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry. They are joined by business executives like Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan, Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, and Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock.
Why Davos, you may wonder? Aside from the guaranteed discretion the most influential people in the world will receive in Switzerland, Davos can only be reached by one road, making it easy to safeguard against terrorist attacks or left-wing protests. Each year, the Swiss Army descends on the two entry points on either side of the valley and monitors everyone who enters with Swiss precision. There are checkpoints at key access roads and bridges as well as at Samedan airport near St. Moritz, where many attendants fly in on private jets (it is not a commercial airport).
Locals in Davos are however less impressed each year by the circus descending on their village. Access to basic infrastructure becomes difficult or at times impossible, as local roads are blocked off for the week. Prices explode to a manifold of their usually already high prices. A five-night stay in one of Davos’ nicer hotels blows out to CHF 25,000 (USD 29,000) and even basic hotels charge CHF 1,000 (USD 1,160) per night. Luxury chalets in Davos also quintuple their prices and are known to fetch prices between CHF 500,000 and CHF 1 million for the week. The three-chalet Bortji estate rented for CHF 1.25 million (USD 1.45 million) for the WEF week. To whom? We shall not know, this is Switzerland after all.
