The Swiss government can’t afford to send its own officials to the World Economic Forum’s elite yearly get-together in Davos, and is asking “higher level” dignitaries to share hotel rooms, the Neue Zuercher Zeitung reported on Saturday.
The Alpine resort town of Davos will play host to politicians, business leaders and celebrities when the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting kicks off on Monday. The gathering is an opportunity for like-minded, mostly liberal, elites to network and discuss eliminating fossil fuels, boosting “diversity and equity,” and planning for calamitous diseases, among other much-maligned proposals.
The influx of elites naturally drives the cost of accommodation in Davos through the roof, and even the Swiss government is feeling the pinch, according to an official audit cited by the Neue Zuercher Zeitung.
The WEF made 25 hotel rooms available to representatives of the Swiss federal government last year. 20 of these were inside the heavily-policed “security zone,” and priced at 1,269.90 francs ($1,472) per night, while five outside this zone cost the Swiss taxpayer 599.90 francs ($705) each.
According to the audit, the prices were set after “complicated negotiations” between the WEF and local hotels, and were considered “favorable” rates.
However, federal expense regulations only allow Swiss government officials to spend a maximum of 180 francs ($211) per night, or 250 francs ($293) in what the newspaper called “justified exceptional cases.”
With prices running nearly ten times this rate, the government is making some cutbacks this year, Economy Minister Guy Parmelin told the paper. The size of this year’s delegation is being kept “as small as possible,” Parmelin said,and that some members will stay in the town of Chur, 50 kilometers from the Davos site.
While the government has managed to secure hotel rooms in Chur for the comparative bargain of 190 francs per night, delegates will still have to share rooms in some cases. Even those at the “higher levels of the hierarchy” will have to bunk up, Parmelin stated.
Some 5,000 Swiss soldiers will be deployed throughout the country during the WEF gathering, the Swiss Defense Ministry said last week. A sizable contingent of these will be housed outside the town, but will not be subjected to the same spending limits as the government delegation, the newspaper reported. Soldiers on duty at last year’s summit had an even better arrangement, staying in the resort itself.
Back in 2016, five soldiers tested positive for cocaine consumption after their week in Davos and were sent home, while another seven were disciplined for smoking cannabis while protecting the rich and powerful.