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Quality in tourism has many dimensions. Through quality management, efforts are being made to take account of the growing importance of individual aspects of quality. A Iprogramme with various instruments was designed for Swiss tourism with the aim of ystematically promoting and securing on‐going quality development. The programme consists of three levels: in level 1, the focus is on quality of service and in level 2 on management quality. It is not until level 3 that familiar TQM systems are adopted. This article provides a brief overview of the entire programme which covers all aspects of a tourism service package, ranging from tourism information through the hotel trade mountain cableways.

The subsidization of events by public authorities at different administrative levels has become increasingly important in recent years. Event portfolios are an important supply component of tourism destinations. The development of a valuation tool with an event performance index (EPI) as the key output should enable public authorities to develop transparent, systematic and fair subsidization practices in the future. The paper aims discuss these issues.

Using a theoretical impact model and event evaluation practices, this work develops a new holistic valuation tool for events with key indicators along the dimensions of sustainable development. Basic cost-benefit analysis ideas enrich the approach conceptually. Indicator development was based on a process of elaboration that considered the scientific literature, event stakeholders and municipal representatives.

The EPI consists of seven core indicators: size, economic value, touristic value and image, innovative strength, value of networking, value of participation and social exchange and relative ecological burden. The application of this tool to a case study revealed that it generates comprehensive and robust indicators of multifaceted and destination-unspecific event values and supports the process of allocating event subsidies using different remuneration schemes. Straightforward and destination-unspecific indicators assure the transferability and adaptability of the valuation tool to different complex and multifaceted contexts of event subsidization.

The EPI seeks to reduce complexity and incentivize event organizers to meet future sustainable development goals. Additionally, this work contributes to future discussions of both the form and process of event subsidization.

The travel business and environmental protection organizations have long been looking for an award system for environmentally compatible and socially responsible tourism — a so‐called “green” seal of approval (cf. Touristik Management 11/91, p 60). So far, people have come up with imaginative creations like green suitcases, silver thistles, blue angels or blue flags designed to give an ecological “all clear” to individual beaches, hotels, holiday areas, tour operators or entire package holidays. Rather than add to this confusing jungle of “green” symbols, Hansruedi Mller and Roman Mezzasalma, two Berne University tourism researchers, put forward the idea of better ecological declarations for tourism products.

Our rapidly changing times call for constant renewal of competencies. The following competencies can be described as being of central importance in tourism: problem‐solving competencies, personality traits, communication competency, socio‐cultural competency and entrepreneurial competency. A written gap‐analyse involving all sorts of tourism exponents shows the biggest gaps between today's quality and tomorrow's importance as follows: social competency (1), personality competency (2) and leadership (3). For greater transparency in tourism vocational training an attempt was made to subdivide it into the following four fields: hospitality industry with hotels, gastronomy etc., transport with tourist mo‐bility, public transport, boat travel etc., new professional fields such as sports and cultural activity manage‐ment, wellness, MICE etc. and the tourism sector in the narrower sense with tourism organizations, tourist offices, tour operators etc. The article makes clear, that specialized colleges of higher education and expert examinations, tourism should be interpreted as a comprehensive phenomenon with modular specializations. No further subdivisions should be attempted. The central challenge for tourism actors lies in managing the ongoing radical change and and adjust vocational training programms. On the basis of the findings of the empirical survey and the discussions with experts, the article submitts twelve recommendations for the tourism and educati‐on policy.

In recent years, the “experience” theme has increased in significance for tourism. For aerial cableways, the mountains provide natural experience zones, and hence a good foundation for satisfying differing guest requirements. Thus, appropriate expansion ofcableway services and carefully staged activities can reduce dependence on the weather and tap this growing potential. This article is based on a recently completed study (Michel 2001) on the “mountain experience” and conduct an in‐depth analysis of the topic of quality in aerial cableways. The study has been done in the alpine regions of Switzerland and considers the special situation of the small and medium structure of the branch with lack of management know how. Also the vertical integration of the service chain is rather poor. Using a factor analysis, an attempt was made to highlight groups and identify various themes among the 117 survey variables in the “mountain experience” service chain. Twelve factors in all were identified: 1. safety and maintenance of ski runs and facilities, 2. accessibility and suitability for private transport and 3. friendliness and atmosphere. Fun and entertainment has become last of the twelve factors in the overall view. But special groups like snowboarders and younger people are more likely to attach importance to fun, entertainment and special ski‐run amenities. This difference in evaluation of the entertainment and events aspect by the various groups could conceivably lead to conflicts in ski regions, showing that quality is heavily dependent on the expectations of the target groups.

The study questions how spreading working hours through the day (night) and week might affect how people use their time and participate in leisure and social activities. We make use of closed two‐daystime‐use‐diaries and questionnaires asked employees of the Swiss railway (sample size of 1,400 diarydays), to access the implications of atypical forms of working hours on the workers’ leisure time as well as the time arrangements of the employees’ partners and children. The empirical investigation revealed that people who work shifts are less likely to live in households made up of several persons (an average of 13.6 per cent compared, with 18.8 per cent among people who do not work shifts). Shift workers who live together with others in a household are more likely to share a household with a partner who also works shifts: 30.6 per cent of partners/spouses also work shifts, compared with 14.4 per cent of partners/spouses of non‐shift workers. Subdividing households according to single‐ or multiple‐person households shows that shift workers achieve a slightly longer period of social time than non‐shift workers. On the one hand, this points to a social environment which adapts to the irregular and asynchronous working hours of the person concerned. On the other hand, comparison with sociological theory literature and other time‐budget studies brings out that the social framework conditions and the extent to which working hours can be planned exert a definite influence on a functioning social environment. The Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) tries – and manages – to take this into account, as the survey results clearly show. Thus, it is not possible to draw the conclusion that shift workers are in principle at greater risk from social isolation. In fact, it should be pointed out that the negative consequences of asynchronous working hours can be compensated for by individual adjustments. However, in this regard, certain operational and social framework conditions are a prerequisite for the success of these individual efforts.

The shortcomings of lobbying in respect of tourism policy are a frequent topic of discussion in tourism circles which lament that there is virtually no voice — and therefore no ear — for tourism policy matters in the Swiss Parliament. Is this really the case, or is it merely the customary reaction of a branch that is undergoing major structural change? A review of the achievement record on tourism policy affairs in recent years comes to the conclusion that the successes — at federal level, at least — are actually quite creditable: Innotour has been rejigged and a qualification offensive launched, the special VAT rate — that controversial regulatory policy issue — has been extended, the Schweizerische Cesellschaft für Hotelkredit (Swiss Society for Hotel Credits) was given a new credit, despite considerable opposition, and Switzerland Tourism's federal subsidy looks set to be higher than ever before. And all this at a juncture when savings and cuts are being made on all sides. So there is every indication that tourism lobbying in Switzerland is better than its reputation. It was in this context that tourism lobbying was investigated. The corresponding study, conducted by Brigitte Zaugg (2004), took its lead from the principles of the New Political Economy (Public Choice Theory), which uses as its essential point of departure that the ever‐more‐complex relations between politics and industry generate higher information requirements in all political bodies. Lobbyingprovides a tool for reducing information deficits. Here, information is understood as a swap commodity, because well informed circles can intensify their influence. What is more, with the help of lobbying, it is possible to develop viable legislation characterized by a high degree of acceptance and a broad consensus. Thus, despite certain image problems, lobbying is increasingly perceived as an indispensable form of basic democracy and a legitimate factor in shaping political will. If the influencing of tourism policy decision‐making processes in order to push through specific interests is further increased, the question arises of how lobbying could be modified to make it even more successful. In this connection, the study identifies four focal approaches: 1) the development and nurture of a sustainable network of contacts, 2) the permanent readying of sound information geared to public welfare and a regular exchange of information, 3) the preparation of suggested improvements that are as practical as possible and include own inputs, and 4) the creation of strategic partnerships and the grouping of tasks.

Die Arbeitsgruppe hat sich in ihren Beratungen folgenden Fragen gewidmet:

Although tourism is based on growing mobility, traffic currently represents the biggest problem for many tourist resorts. The high volume of traffic in holiday resorts is steadily undermining their attractiveness for tourists. People are becoming increasingly aware of this issue, and various efforts are being made to get local traffic problems under control. The technical aspects are widely known, but the measures taken and the implementation procedures used lack consistency and the success achieved varies considerably. This research project has focused on concrete implementation processes for traffic measures and their impact on the environment. In particular, questions about the acceptance of measures and how these relate to the implementation process have been of great interest.

This article risks the attempt to move the discussion of culture and tourism onto a broader basis. It replaces a rigid conception of culture with a dynamic model and starts from a framing premise of empathy rather than cultural pessimism. It uses an extended explanatory model of tourism to seek answers to two central questions: what functions does travel fulfill for the travelers' culture and what effects can tourism have on hosts culture? The report demonstrates that the ritual, utopian and mythical character of travel makes a significant contribution to satisfying the basic human needs for security, activity and pluralism. In this way the holiday culture that has developed in the western countries has come to assume a vital role in strengthening cultural identity.