MySwissAlps.com features ads, commercial and non-commercial Suggestions to improve MySwissAlps.com
-
Hello,
So this thread is still alive. Great news ! I am (still) wondering if it can be made possible to delete an image that one has uploaded by accident to a post.
Hi Slowpoke,
I’ll keep checking the search results from time to time, but good to hear that the improvements work for you.
Hi Peterli,
That one is on the to do list. I can’t say when it will be done, but I am interested in making it possible, along with other improvements regarding forum attachments.
Hi Arno,
MySwissAlps has a strong (too strong in my view) focus on the Jungfrau and the Lucerne areas (and, to an almost equal level, Zermatt and Montreux). Maybe it is due to the interest of your audience, but as you know these areas are overcrowded, to the extent that in Lucerne there is considerable political pressure to put a ceiling to the number of visitors. While there are lots of other areas in the Swiss Alps that could be attractive to visitors, such as Graubünden (and not only St Moritz) and Ticino.
Hi Snowman –
Interesting to hear about the proposed congestion management issues in Luzern.
<<“MySwissAlps has a strong (too strong in my view) focus on the Jungfrau and the Lucerne areas (and, to an almost equal level, Zermatt and Montreux). Maybe it is due to the interest of your audience,”>>
When a customer asks about particular areas, the proper response for a customer-focused business is to respond to their interest and questions.
As you have noticed, I can and do, as do/did others, sometimes suggest other regions when the forum member asks by type of activity, rather than by named location. Some are even so bold as to suggest regions in la Romandie (das Welschland), der Röstigraben, das Dreiseenland, das Emmental, or the Engiadina Bassa, when the writer has expressed no interest at all in those areas.
It is rare that I or anyone else gets much response on those suggestions. Some of those responses are based on very specific interests, such as tracking down family roots, or seeking an Alpabzug. That lack of response is a clue to the interests of people posting on the forum.
(Almabtrieb – Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Almabtrieb
The Almabtrieb (in Switzerland: Alpabzug, Alpabfahrt, or in French speaking Switzerland: Désalpes; German language literally: drive from the mountain pasture) ..)
One place, also full of tourists, that is not in the Alps, is Stein-am-Rhein. Lucas’ report of his trip to Stein has had enthusiastic reception.
Tourism is a major industry in Switzerland. It gets support form the Federal and Cantonal governments. The proper response to your concerns – in theory, any way – is to arrange that the customer seeks some place other than the 4 that you mention. To that end, the various levels of Government, one embodiment of them in “My Switzerland” (Switzerland Tourism), and tourist attractions such as Jungfraujoch and Luzern, could have their advertising budgets reduced. The new cableway to Jungfraujoch could have been stopped, a more dictatorial country.
Please correct me on this if I am wrong. I think it is correct that Lex Koller has not been universally popular, especially when a consequence was restriction on building developments of vacation home owned by foreigners. Some of these developments stand empty much of the year, as far as I know. There is a perspective that overdevelopment of this type despoils the landscapes. I certainly agree. But it adds to the tax roles. So, it is unpopular.
Switzerland id a democarcy with strong methods for the citizens to express their opinions about governmernt actions.
If, indeed, the locations that you mention are overcrowded, the correct response is not for this forum to direct visitors to places thatthey don’t want to visit. Instead, it is for th Swiss, via inititive and referendum, to manage the demand. Perhaps that is what Luzern is considering.
Claasical marketing suggest raising prices to reduce demand. That is just one ides.
Just my opinion, of course.
😉
Slowpoke
Hello Slowpoke,
“When a customer asks about particular areas, the proper response for a customer-focused business is to respond to their interest and questions.”
I agree with you here. If a poster asks a more open-ended question such as “where else can I go?” ” what other areas do you suggest?”, then we can be more imaginative with our response. You can recommend the Emmental or the Dreiseenland,, Peterli can endorse Romandie, Rockoyster has experience of other areas, Alpenrose used to be brilliant at suggestions in Graubünden and my favourite thing is to find and recommend places no-one else mentions!
When I feel irritated by jostling or queue-jumping crowds of tourists (remember I am British and we queue!) I have to remind myself that it is somewhat hypocritical to complain about tourists because I am a tourist myself!
However as I wrote recently on another thread I think the Swiss need to reconsider their approach somewhat. They have become obsessed with getting as many people as possible as quickly as possible to their “top tourist” spots (e.g. new cableway to Jungfraujoch) and are in danger of spoiling those places (Titlis lighthouse!) by too much “entertainment” instead of letting the natural beauty be the main reason for visiting them.
First time or only time visitors will naturally wish to see the most famous landmarks and we should not discourage them from doing so. But if we get the opportunity to suggest less crowded places or less commercialised places then we should also feel free to do just that.
Arno is expanding the areas on which information is available on this site and is to be commended for his hard work in doing that. I have never come across any other site to compare with MySwissAlps and am grateful that I found it. I recommend both Switzerland and this site regularly to friends when they ask why we keep returning to Switzerland!
Maggie
Hello Snowman,
In response to your post today (November 11), you have hit the nail on the head. You mention the strong focus on the areas around Lucerne, the Jungfrau, Zermatt, and Montreux, and suggest, if I am understanding you correctly, a greater emphasis on the Grisons (and not just St. Moritz) and the Ticino. Right away I would add north-eastern Switzerland, including Appenzell and the Säntis. Quite frankly, I am surprised that Montreux has come into its own on this website as a place that is talked about, as it is not an alpine location as are the others. And many of the mountains we do see across the lake from Montreux are in France, and who has ever mentioned les Dents-du-Midi ? But let’s face it, are we really surprised, when the title of this website is MySwissAlps ?
Back to Montreux for a moment, I am very pleased that it does get some attention, not only for the city itself, but for other places along the Léman, such as Lausanne, Vevey , the Lavaux, and places not too far off such as Gruyères and Broc. If there was another website that was similar to this one but which covered all of the country, I would be contributing to it, as I believe there is more to knowing Switzerland than visiting the Pilatus, the Titlis, the Stanserhorn, the Jungfrau, the Cervin (Matterhorn), and the towns associated with these locations, including St. Moritz. I want people to know this country, and this is why I always try to sneak in suggestions about other places, such as non-Alp places in the Ticino, and others in some of the French-speaking cantons and sometimes across the border to places such as Yvoire in France. The other day I even put in a plug for the medieval town of Pérouges, on the way from Geneva to Lyon. Take the canton du Valais, you’d think that the only place worth a visit is Zermatt and the Matterhorn. Some other places are occasionally mentioned, and deservedly so; one example that comes to mind is Stein-am-Rhein. But when have we seen anything about Morat (Murten) or Avenches or Le Landeron ? Knowing Switzerland to me is more than ticking off a list of mountains on some check-list. At least one contributor has told me that people are not interested when I go off the normal track, and this may be so for most visitors to this site. So be it, but I’ll continue to make my contributions until I am told to no longer do so. Once a teacher, always a teacher !
Hi everyone,
Thanks for your thoughts and compliments. There are a few sides to this. This websites started as a hobby; simply sharing information about the places we visited ourselves (http://www.myswissalps.com/ab outus). The Jungfrau region, Valais and Graubünden were the first regions I went to. It has never been the goal to cover the whole of Switzerland, although things have expanded over the years. We do keep an eye on the interests of people. It would be a waste of time to invest too much in non popular places. We aim for a mix, to try and make a useful website for first time visitors (the majority) and returning visitors. For example, Saas-Fee, Niesen and Bettmerhorn have been on MySwissAlps since almost the beginning, but never got much attention. People create a wish list based on a lot of sources I guess, and there’s only so much one single website can do about that. We recently added the Ticino section, again with a mix of popular things to do as well as walks that will probably not be interesting for “the masses”, like this one: http://www.myswissalps.com/hi king/locarnocamellia. More tips for the Lac Léman area will be coming, but also more for the Jungfrau region and Lucerne. Hopefully we’ll be able to add even more tips and regions in the future.
By the way, I do hope that tourism organizations will focus on nature as an attraction rather than theme park like attractions like Maggie mentioned. The Swiss Alps are unique as they are. Theme parks can be visited everywhere. This is also a nice fit with eco-friendly traveling, which is a necessity we try to focus on as well.
Hi Arno
I agree that to cover the whole of Switzerland would be a mammoth task and not what this site is about. I know Peterli is very fond of the French speaking areas of Switzerland and I have gleaned some useful information from his posts and suggestions which I hope he will feel free to continue to offer. Perhaps he could put together a comprehensive folder you could refer to like Kim's on Wengen? Then you would have another region covered without having to put it together yourself! I love this site and think you and your fellow moderators do a wonderful job! Thank you all so much. And my thanks also to regular contributors for their posts.
All this theme park stuff really annoys me to be honest and has put me off going to Titlis. I think my favourite mountain remains Matterhorn as viewed from Gornergrat as it just stands there alone in its natural splendour to be admired for what it is.
I intended a while back to add my thoughts to the thread about less well known treasures but never got round to it so must give it some thought and look for the thread! I keep a list on a spreadsheet of all the places we go to each year so it is just a matter of looking through the list for the places that rarely get a mention.
Maggie
Hi Arno –
Here’s another one.
Could we have the page-choosing function ( First, 1, 2,….last) at the top of the page as well as the bottom?
Or have it fixed on screen while the thread displays any page?
For some reason that I cannot understand, I seem to get involved in long threads 😉
It would be nice to be able to skip to the end or at a chosen page of the thread immediately when one re-enters it. And, when I “Click here to reply in the Forum” I get dumped in at the beginning, instead of at the point where a reply would be appropriate.
Not a big issue, but it would be a nice improvement.
Slowpoke
Sorry that I missed your earlier contribution. Perhaps you were not forceful enough?
Perhaps we should use the Swiss Direct Democracy Approach (which is available to some degree in the Netherlands, I note) , and organize a referendum amongst forum members with some lower limit on the number of posts? Perhaps 4013 posts?
😉
Slowpoke
Dear All,
i am finding in my little search, that it’s hard to find safety point of view articles or any such linkage which speaks of tourist safety in extreme weather condition like winter in Nov/ Dec at various stations eg any provision of enclosed room Etc specifically at far flung stations eg we are discussing at one forum journey from Luzern to oberalppass
further visiting at mountain by gondola or cable car, if face extreme weather condition all sudden, how safe these rides really are and what previous statistics tells about occurrence of accidents so that at particular time period such rides can be avoided? During one of the discussion, I knew that such mountain ride sudden stops for a while, but nothing to worry, as it’s very normal, and after knowing, was great relief.
tourusts safety from other angle like from miscreants and pickpocketers are another information ,details available shall act a precaution for coming tourists..this information statistics can be gathered based on reported accidents/incidents for a particular region and shall definitely act as a safeguard for many other tourists visiting to that region.
thanks and regards….
In continuation of my previous post, one suggestion also from my side, that one some sort of permanent topic, like “if somebody would had told me beforehand” wherein various tourists share their problems, situations etc they faced shall act not only a very useful informations but also a precaution and a warning to many others.
i agree there are reports available, but those talked of detailed summary of their visits and of one particular journey and one not interested in reading too many reports, but a permant topic like this ,in my view, should go a long way to serve many upcoming tourists as a pre warning and they be beforehand ready.
thanks and regards
<<“i am finding in my little search, that it’s hard to find safety point of view articles or any such linkage which speaks of tourist safety in extreme weather condition like”>>
Where are you coming from?
Slowpoke
Yeah we be visiting last week of Nov from India,Mumbai..thanks
Hi Hansaria,
It is hard to know what one visitor might find useful knowing before their trip compared to other visitors. Tricky context; but I understand your request. Usually the trip reports help with those details and reading through them during your planning stage can help you prepare for your trip as best you can (to see what others found interesting and useful).
Also be sure to use the search box on our site. We do have posts talking about public safety and/or pickpockets for example. Searching for “pickpockets” returns this thread: http://www.myswissalps.com/fo rum/topic/safety-switzerland
Though we don’t carry details on crime statistics here. 🙂
Dear Lucas Sir, thanks for your reply….however, i do believe that a permanent sort of topic like, if somebody would had told me before, wherein various travelers share their good experience and some also bad experience and new new amazing things will come out, i dont think having such a topic, in anyway, shall harm the reputation of the Switzerland as the most scenic and most friendly tourist place, rather be of further immense useful to the many other new tourists also.
This i found at Trip Advisor, a similar topic on same line about the Paris and was of immense helpful for taking further precaution etc.
Hi Hansaria,
We’ll keep that in mind for future additions to the website. Meanwhile, safety regarding luggage and while hiking is already covered here:
Hello Hansaria,
Maybe when you get back home after your November trip you can start off such a thread. Always assuming you end up getting any surprises.
Your concerns about cable cars and gondolas are unfounded. The operators will not run them in extreme or dangerous conditions. All forms of transport in Switzerland are extremely safe and professionally run.
Relax and enjoy.
- The thread ‘Suggestions to improve MySwissAlps.com’ is closed to new replies.
