In a recent interview with the Swiss public broadcaster RTS, passersby in Lucerne, which is among the most popular tourist destinations in Switzerland, complained about the behaviour of some foreign visitors.
They mentioned such common practices as spitting on a street and taking up entire sidewalks without leaving any space for others to pass.
While certain habits may be difficult to eradicate, others could be amendable to change, which is why the country’s tourism board, Switzerland Tourism, has launched an awareness campaign aimed at foreign visitors to improve their coexistence with the local population.
“We want harmony between visitors and residents,” Martin Nydegger,, the head of Switzerland Tourism told RTS.
“But sometimes, visitors coming from distant markets are not exactly familiar with our customs," he added.
Raclette versus fast food
To reach their target audience early, before they even arrive in Switzerland, an ‘educational’ video is shown on SWISS airline’s long-haul flights.
The video conveys a few basic rules - cultural tips, essentially – for not upsetting the local population.
They include tips such as not monopolising space on public transport, asking permission before photographing someone, and prioritising the consumption of local products.
This may seem like superfluous advice, except that it isn’t.
As The Local reported in 2024, Asian tourists in the village of Lungern, in canton Obwalden, “invade, possibly due to different cultures and notions of what constitutes admissible behaviour, the privacy of local residents by not only walking, uninvited, into their gardens, but sometimes into their homes as well. And local school officials report that visitors have photographed and even touched blonde children — a novelty for Asian tourists.”
Tourists behaving badly
In at least one instance, ‘good conduct’ reminders have had to go to comic extremes.
Such was the case in 2015, when, fed up with having to clean up messes in the public toilets, the operators of the Mount Rigi cogwheel railway in central Switzerland had installed pictogram signs showing the right and wrong way to use the train toilets.
“Tourists from the Gulf region and Asian countries are not very aware of our way of living,” Marcel Furer, head of the regional tourist office, said at the time.
The pictograms instructed users to sit on toilet seats rather than to squat on them, and to discard used toilet paper in the lavatory rather than in the waste bin.
“It happens that guests mount on the toilet seats to do their business — and sometimes they don’t know where to put the (toilet) paper,” said Roger Joss, director of marketing for the Rigi railway.
Those tips are not, however, included in the latest Switzerland Tourism video.
READ MORE: 10 sure-fire ways to offend a Swiss person
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