WEF Announces 2021 Annual Meeting Won’t Be Held in Davos
WEF Announces 2021 Annual Meeting Won’t Be Held in Davos
(Bloomberg) -- The World Economic Forum said its annual meeting will be held in Switzerland next summer but not in the ski resort of Davos.
The canton of Nidwalden is in talks with organizers to host the meeting, with the Buergenstock resort being a possible venue, Luzerner Zeitung reported on Tuesday.
Yann Zopf, a spokesman for the Forum, earlier on Tuesday confirmed reports by Swiss broadcaster SRF and newspaper Suedostschweiz that the gathering of global business and financial leaders would be shifted away from its usual location. The new site will be announced in the coming weeks, he said.
Because of the pandemic, the WEF already decided to postpone the event, which attracts thousands, including the likes of U.S. President Donald Trump. It’s now scheduled for early summer rather than January.
For the town of Davos, the cancellation comes as a blow because it leaves restaurants, bars and hotels devoid of the usual deluge of guests.
A University of St. Gallen study estimated that the 2017 meeting generated roughly 60 million francs ($66 million) in revenue for the Davos economy, and about 2 million francs in local tax revenue.
Still, it’s not the first time the WEF is being held elsewhere. In 2002 it was moved to New York to show solidarity following the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
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