Boost city tourism with Sunday sales
pandemic
Four cantons want to stimulate city tourism with Sunday sales
Corona has severely affected city tourism. Now the cantons of Zurich, Geneva, Lucerne and Ticino are launching a joint initiative to help the cities on their way to death.
The hesitant tourism industry is one of the victims of the corona pandemic. The cities are hardest hit. The hotel, catering and stationary retail trade in the city centers are suffering above all from the high level of business activity. Now the economic directors of the cantons of Zurich, Lucerne and Ticino as well as the industry organization Geneva Tourism want to help the cities together.
They are calling for “targeted corrections to the regulatory framework,” as stated in a joint communication on Friday. These include, for example, shopping opportunities on the weekends in tourist areas, as is already possible in classic mountain destinations. Accordingly, the ordinance on the labor law is to be supplemented with a passage in order to enable tourism zones in cities and large localities as well.
Zurich, Geneva, Lucerne and Ticino argue that Sundays are important for individual travelers from Europe. Urban congress destinations such as Geneva and Zurich are therefore dependent on recreational tourism being promoted on weekends as well.
A hot iron
In principle, working on Sundays is forbidden in this country, but cantons and municipalities can declare tourism zones to partially circumvent the rules. With the proposal presented on Friday, the economics directors set a hot iron. The lifting of the Sunday work ban regularly causes dying minds and mobilizes the unions.
Knowing full well that the workers’ organizations are allowed to oppose advances, the workers postpone as a precaution: “With the amendment of the regulation, no Sunday ban has yet been lifted”. The foundation is first laid so that the cantons can hold discussions with their municipalities as to where tourism zones make sense and how they can be designed. (dpo)