After an almost continuous growth since 1850, with the First World War, the tourism sector, in Switzerland as elsewhere in the West, faced its first real crisis and had its actors to develop more ...refined strategies for the first time to "attract" customers and "retain" those who were already there. In this context, it should be noted that the hoteliers of St. Moritz, along with broader tourism networks, took advantage of a unique historical configuration between the two world wars to improve the reputation of the resort and enlarge its offer, both in the winter season with skiing and other disciplines like bobsleigh, but also in the summer season, especially following the opening of traffic to cars in the canton of Graubünden in 1925. In our article, we seek to analyze the involvement of hoteliers in the organization of the 1928 Olympic Games, both to understand the 'local' network behind the organization of a major sporting event and to take an innovative look at the development of tourism in the inter-war period. We based our analysis on municipal archives (political authorities, tourist office, hotel infrastructures, ski club), never really used in historical work on the winter Olympics.
Beyond the competition between several alpine states (Austria, Switzerland, France, etc.), the emergence of the alpine version of skiing is a complex process that combines the rise of winter tourism, ...technical developments enabling access to the mountain regions and the increasing sportification of leisure practices. Thus, it focuses on a period of time from the end of the nineteenth century up to the interwar, with specific attention to the late 1920s. Straddling tourism study, sport history and elite sociability, it is a process that has not been studied that much in the historiography. Through this contribution, our aim is to analyse the local conditions presiding over the emergence of 'alpine skiing', considering an episode played out in St. Moritz at a particular moment - the years leading up to and after the organisation of the 1928 Olympic Games - as indicators of more global processes. We based our analysis on the rich archives of the city of St. Moritz (political authorities, tourist office, hotel infrastructures, ski club), never really used in historical work on the birth of alpine skiing, and several other institutions such as international sports federations and national organisations.
This paper focuses on environmental preservation and tourism in the Aletsch area of the Swiss Alps, including the Jungfrau-Aletsch World Heritage Site, and the current condition of winter tourism ...diversity in Saint Moritz. In the Aletsch area, the cultural landscape, ecosystem, and diversity of nature are preserved by government officials and local citizens. Bettmeralp, which is close to Aletsch and offers a view of the Aletsch glacier, effectively uses its natural environment, including livestock pasturing during the summer, residents' traditional culture, and various annual sports and cultural events, as a tourist attraction throughout the year. On the other hand, St. Moritz, which is known as the birthplace of winter sports, held an international convention for winter sports, which led to an improvement in residents’ quality of life. Winter tourism developed from visitors watching winter sports games and other various events. As mentioned above, environmental tourism is developed in both areas.
