The slopes are empty, the ski lift operators are bankrupt, Gstaad is supposedly losing out to bigger resorts and the place is losing its allure, or so they say. 

But since this apparent dip in the popularity of Gstaad, it seems trendier than ever, especially with young people. A big royal wedding, the Small World annual gathering, a grand museum tour, an art fair, multiple celebrity appearances, and numerous mentions in the European (FT) and American (New York Post) press prove it. References to the “Gstaad set” have appeared no less than 10 times in Hello! magazine, on websites, in gossip columns, newspapers and television shows in recent months. And that is just what I have seen. Surely I missed some. So how could Gstaad be on its way out? 

Most people don’t have a clue how to pronounce Kshhtaad. And if you can’t pronounce it, I say don’t bother coming. Anyone who is attracted to this place because it is some sort of Shangri-La for the rich, well-to-do, and chic are exactly the type of people businesses here want to attract and I want to repel. Popular destinations are cringeworthy. Like St.Tropez in August, a beautiful resort that becomes a monument to everything sick, vulgar and offensive about the rich. It attracts vultures, sleazy businessmen, cradle snatchers, hookers, social climbers, and unbelievably rude badly dressed people. The envy and greed is palpable, and so like a junkie to heroin, there is never enough. Not in St.Tropez, and not in Gstaad. Refurbished hotels, new hotels, numerous new shops, a new art center, more tourists, richer tourists, more fame, more popularity … will it ever stop? 

From a financial point of view, it seems that without constant growth and ever more ostentatious and wealthy visitors people will fear the edge of a fiscal cliff. Don’t the Swiss value more than just big money? How sad and misguided if this is the case, especially for those who are not driven solely by money.

Perhaps if Gstaad sought a different sort of tourist, it wouldn’t have empty slopes. Ladies who have to carry a Birkin bag the size of a suitcase to feel important can’t really put them down in order to hold a ski pole. And of course skinned croc doesn’t react well to moisture so they hang out on the promenade where their heels have a better chance of getting noticed. Nowadays, most people who come to Gstaad prefer a party and a mark to a ski slope and wiener schnitzel. But that’s what the greedy of Gstaad asked for, and so that’s what they are getting instead of nice upper middle class families on ski holidays, who actually ski. Madonna and her brood being the exceptions. Maybe there is something positive about her arrival after all. At the very least she, or some billionaire arriviste looking to spread some good will can afford to bail out the lifts before they are forced to file for Chapter 11 and turn our idyllic alpine station into a sorry tale of greed, mismanagement and destruction.

Gstaad-goers are definitely not the only ones out of touch with reality. If anything, they have simply been drinking the same California cool-aid that makes one more interested in fame and money than the preservation of anything beautiful, olden, or modest. The so-called affluent here and around the world are suffering from gross disregard for what is rather more important than being on the cover of a magazine with the biggest and best toys and boasting about $100 million houses. Clearly, all good sense is gone when people throw bad parties they spend fortunes producing and wear outrageously expensive furs and heels on a wet day when they’re just picking up a pencil at Cadenau. God is my witness!

As leaders and examples of success, which many of Gstaad’s residents are, I find it heart-breaking that their tastes are not more discerning. The big shots around here will continue to see the value in more money and more development to the exclusion of almost everything else. They will succeed in their quest to spoil Gstaad soon enough, unless I am wrong which I hope I am. Until then I can only wish fashionable people move onto the next place by the end of the year, and that Gstaad can hang onto its bucolic charm just a little bit longer.