Mass tourism in the Swiss Alps was already a grim prospect for Hans Magnus Enzensberger in 1958. In his famous and oft-criticised essay Vergebliche Brandung der Ferne, Eine Theorie des Tourismus, he writes:
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‘The Pilgrims of Science’: The First Swiss Himalayan Expedition of 1936
In 1936 Augusto Gansser (1910-2012) joined another Swiss geologist Arnold Heim (1882-1965) for the first Swiss expedition to the Himalayas that lasted for eight months. During the expedition both Heim and Gansser kept
The Tourist, a Puzzle
Does an ideal type tourist exist at all? The manifestations of tourism are certainly as manifold as people themselves. Instead of an impossible definition, history, classification or typology we are presenting a few scattered impressions from the wide
Walter Mittelholzer, tour operator
Commercial air travel for tourists began in Europe after the First World War in 1919. In Switzerland, Walter Mittelholzer and Alfred Comte, the driving forces behind the Swiss airline company Ad Astra Aero AG, started conducting tourist flights to the Alps in the early 1920s. As these ceased in the winter months, two tourist flights to Africa in 1929/30 and 1930/31 were just what the doctor ordered for Mittelholzer. Not only
International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development 2017
As early as 2002 the United Nations proclaimed the International Year of Ecotourism and was then heavily criticized for it. The year 2017 has now been proclaimed as “International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development”. The hope of the international year is
Old Snàporaz. On the 20th anniversary of Marcello Mastroianni’s death
Today is the 20th anniversary of Marcello Mastroianni’s death. On this occasion we present some recently digitised photographs of the shooting of Vie privée (A Very Private Affair, 1962) by Louis Malle in Geneva. Mastroianni embodies a man who travels between Geneva, Paris and Spoleto and has an affair with the model and movie star ‘Jill’ (Brigitte Bardot). Jill is being pursued by the press and the paparazzi and finally
On the 60th anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian Uprising
In the autumn of 60 years ago, from 23 October to 4 November 1956, dramatic events took place in Budapest, known as the Hungarian Uprising or Hungarian Revolution. In this struggle for freedom, the Hungarian population turned against the government of the Communist Party and the Soviet occupying power.
The opening of the new Metropolitan Opera in New York 50 years ago
50 years ago, on 16 September 1966, the new Metropolitan Opera opened in New York City. The building on the Upper West Side of Manhattan is part of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. The non-profit organization promoting music, dance and
Mittelholzer’s Double
Recently while researching an image of Arnold Heim with an Orang Utan I came across the first journal of Heim’s expedition to Sumatra in 1928. To my surprise in the journal there was a photograph showing a doppelganger of the Swiss pilot Walter Mittelholzer. Mere two years ago in 1926 Arnold Heim had been on a trip to
The Döttingen Ghost
After the Ghost of Kyburg Castle today it is the turn of another specter. Enter Döttingen Ghost, who seems to be far less notorious, than its crony from the Kyburg. Maybe the lack of publicity has to do with its having no castle to dwell in and its roaming the streets instead. For this is