Swiss Village Lauterbrunnen Considers New Tax to Curb Tourism

The rise of tourist taxes as a way to curb tourism that is stretching infrastructure at some of Europe’s trending cities continues.

Residents of Lauterbrunnen, a city in a valley on the Swiss Alps, are reportedly looking into ways of curbing tourism, including possibly installing a tourist tax. The village, known as one of the most beautiful small towns in Europe for its picturesque setting, has recently become an Instagram-travel-hotspot with its views of the Alps, chalet-style houses, and 72 unique waterfalls.

Lauterbrunnen has been inundated with tourists so much that residents regularly complain about crowded streets, garbage, and high rents. One local told Swiss public radio, SRF, last year that residents, which number less than 2,500, feel like “employees in a theme park.” 

According to Swiss Info, local authorities are now looking for a way to curb the number of tourists coming into the village, including the possibility of charging day-trippers somewhere between $5 and $10 per day, a tact that Venice has recently employed. 

The issue with the tourist tax would be enforcing it in a local the size of Lauterbrunnen—Venice is employing officials to randomly check for receipts inside the enforcement area, a resource that Lauterbrunnen doesn’t necessarily have.

Still, residents seem determined to find a way to curb tourism to the village, and they are not the only ones in Switzerland wanting to do so. Residents of Iseltwald, a city featured on a popular South Korean TV series, installed a tourist fee and charged tourists to take selfies by its iconic lake pre-pandemic, and Lucerne, another popular tourist destination, could be next, according to Swiss Info.