Bla Bla Lab
Thomas Wüthrich: Who does a city belong to – tourists or locals?
Who does tourism serve – visitors or locals? Why are a city’s biggest tourists often its own residents? And what does urban development have to do with live communication?
More than 60 million times a year, the people of Zurich go out and about as sightseers – in their own city. And 70 percent of tourism revenue doesn’t come from people staying in hotels at all, but from day visitors. So a city’s biggest tourists are often its own residents. For Thomas Wüthrich, this is more than just a study and he’s made it his motto: “Only what’s good for the local population is also good for tourism.”
In this episode, Jonathan talks with him about what that means in concrete terms for a city like Zurich and to what extent the role of tourism today is more about urban development than marketing.
Thomas Wüthrich is the director of Zurich Tourism, Switzerland’s largest destination marketing organization, which he has led since January 2022. A native of Bern, he previously worked in the live marketing and events industry for over twenty years – at MCI in Zurich, Stockholm, and Berlin, most recently as Managing Director of MCI Germany. Thomas Wüthrich is the founder of the Zürich Experience – Summit for Urban Tourism.
Links
Zurich Experience – Summit for Urban Tourism: The conference on Swiss urban tourism, initiated by Thomas Wüthrich, will take place on August 27, 2026, at the Circle Convention Center at Zurich Airport. Among the guests in 2026: philosopher Richard David Precht, SECO State Secretary Helene Budliger Artieda, and Geerte Udo, who shaped Amsterdam’s tourism brand with the “Residents First” approach.
Study “Rethinking Tourism”: The study on the visitor economy commissioned by Zurich Tourism, on which Wüthrich’s guiding principle and the key figures from the discussion are based.
Estée Lauder Breast Cancer Awareness Campaigns: Over several years, Live Lab translated the Estée Lauder Companies’ Breast Cancer Campaign into interventions in urban spaces – as part of a comprehensive awareness campaign.
Book “The Eventization of the City”: A study by a research team from Zurich University of the Arts, the ZHAW, and the University of Zurich on the role of events in Zurich’s urban development.
Article by Hans Amrein: The Future of European City Tourism Could Be Zurich
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