3. Cultural and creative sectors
Switzerland
Last update: July, 2021
Heritage issues and policies
Many different parties are involved in heritage development in Switzerland. Cantonal offices cooperate with federal ones on almost all issues. The Culture Promotion Act governs cooperation between the federal government and the cantons. The Confederation may support museums, collections and third-party networks for the preservation of cultural heritage. (Article 10 of the Culture Promotion Act). All the financial effort for conservation of historical monuments and archaeological interventions, as well as any state building, is determined by article 13 of the Federal Law on Nature and Landscape Protection.
With over 1100 Museums and 13 million visitors per year, the Confederation has as well an important task regarding conservation, mediation, and study of both the tangible and intangible cultural heritage.
A further institution involved in heritage development in Switzerland is the National Information Centre for Cultural Property Conservation (NIKE), which was founded in 1988 as an association concerned with the maintenance of cultural goods. It is responsible for the collection, exchange, and distribution of information on the maintenance of cultural goods and is an umbrella organisation with 39 professional associations and public organisations from the field of cultural heritage conservation.
A topic of high priority regarding heritage and conservation matters is the work related to the looted art from the Nazi period, and the international transfer of cultural goods; important measures are taken against illegal commerce of stolen or looted art.
Built Heritage
Rich and varied landscapes, historic towns, villages, districts, individual buildings, and archaeological sites are of outstanding importance for Switzerland's identity and quality of life. Monuments are an essential part of history. Preserving the country's monuments, townscapes, and archaeological sites has great economic significance, not least for maintaining the unbroken success of Switzerland as an attractive tourist destination. Measures such as the campaigns "Historical Switzerland" and "The magic of beautiful places" launched by Switzerland Tourism, demonstrate Switzerland’s desire to promote heritage sites, including those that are not well known.
The Federal Office of Culture (FOC) ensures that the concerns of archaeology, monuments' conservation, and townscape protection are taken into appropriate account on a federal level. For example: The Federal Inventory of Sites of National Importance (ISOS), compiled by the BAK, classifies around 1200 sites (2020) as worthy of protection and of "national importance". It provides the federal government, cantons and municipalities with a planning basis for high-quality settlement development.
The FOC lays the necessary foundations, assesses building plans and projects, and grants financial assistance. The FOC has faced three key challenges that are to be considered along with the current heritage policies: changes in energy and land use policies; the shortage of financial resources to ensure sustainable conservation policies; lacking social awareness of the concerns of archaeology and monuments conservation.
Since the 2016-2020 Culture Dispatch, Baukultur was further developed as an important topic for cultural policies. This important notion is defined by the Baukultur policy as "(…) multi-faceted. It refers to the past, present, and future. Baukultur starts with the open landscape and includes the built and unbuilt environment plus everything in between." We can then say that this holistic view on heritage allows a more sustainable view both in terms of protection and creation of a "material" Swiss identity.
This theme is also one that Switzerland takes a lead on internationally. In January 2018, the Confederation organised an informal conference of Ministers of Culture around this theme in Davos. Since then, Switzerland occupies a leadership role in this domain, especially through the publication of a Davos Declaration on Baukultur, approved by all participants at the conference. The Confederation has committed to the theme as a priority for the upcoming 2021-2024 period. The measures defined by the FOC relate in particular to mediation and the promotion of competence in the area of Baukultur and contribute to a higher quality of building development in Switzerland.
Another international position concerning heritage that Switzerland takes a lead on is cultural heritage that is endangered, which concerns the Federal Department of Home Affairs (Federal Office of Culture), in partnership with the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. The strategy has as a goal to position Switzerland in an international context where there are growing threats against heritage, whether because of armed conflicts or natural catastrophes.
Preservation of the intangible cultural heritage: Traditions
The Confederation published an inventory of the intangible cultural heritage in Switzerland ("List of living traditions") in 2012 (updated in 2017) in cooperation with the cantons. To raise awareness among the population of the importance and social value of intangible cultural heritage, the Confederation supported various projects to communicate living traditions (through museums, centres of excellence, schools) and to deepen knowledge about living traditions. Encounters were promoted between contemporary and traditional culture, fostering regional cultural initiatives through the efforts of Pro Helvetia, hosting an exhibition on "Dialects" at the National Library, and cooperation between the Swiss National Museum and young craftspeople to help convey traditional craftsmanship to a wider audience.
For audiovisual archive conservation and documentary heritage, see chapter 3.2.
Last update: July, 2021
The systematic collection of photographs, sound documents, films, and videos began only a few decades ago. The preservation of Switzerland's audiovisual heritage must rely on recent knowledge of collecting and conserving such cultural assets. The technological developments coinciding with digitisation over the past 20 years pose new challenges, because long-term digital archiving, as well as providing access to and disseminating such data, differs fundamentally from the preservation of analogue items.
Archiving and digitalisation have proven to be extremely important over the years. For example, the Swiss National Museum's online consultation has more than tripled in recent years. It accounts for an important strategic point in the 2021-2024 Culture Dispatch and sets as a goal the progressive digitalisation of archives and collections (National Museum, National Library), films that have had their first presentation with the support of the Federal Office of Culture, etc.
The Swiss Confederation supports the preservation of the country's audiovisual heritage. It funds four institutions responsible for collecting, preserving, restoring, and disseminating Switzerland's audiovisual heritage in different areas:
- Fondation Cinémathèque Suisse (Lausanne)
- Schweizerische Stiftung für Photographie (Winterthur)
- The SAPA Foundation, Swiss Archive of the Performing Arts (Bern / Lausanne / Zurich)
- Memoriav, association for the preservation of Switzerland’s audiovisual heritage (Bern)
Digitalisation and cultural mediation are important goals to follow in the heritage strategies. This concerns both public access to culture, restoration, and archiving.
The Swiss National Library has a certain number of coordination and promotion programmes at its disposal to carry out the conservation work of documentary heritage, partly or entirely funded by the federal government. These include:
Helvetica: Under the name "Helvetica", the Swiss National Library collects publications related to Switzerland, works printed in Switzerland as well as works printed abroad if they are related to Switzerland and its population, regardless of the importance of these works;
The e-Helvetica archive is the digital platform of the Swiss National Library. This digital library and web archive are the result of the continuing digitalisation strategy and the representative collection or original digital content ("digital born") of the Confederation. Besides digital books and historic websites, digitally published books, magazines, theses and standards can be subjected to a full text search on this platform. The digitalisation of books in print, plus the maintenance and securing of the original digital collection will be the main challenges over the next few years.
Literary Archives: The remit of the Swiss Literary Archives, besides the collection and preservation of the estate of Swiss authors, is to open up, research, and convey to a wider audience the works of such authors. Inventories are made accessible online via the archival databases of the National Library.
Graphics Collection: The Graphics Collection contains iconographic documents pertaining to geography, social mores and customs, and Swiss cultural and political themes, especially as depicted in printed graphics from the seventeenth to twentieth centuries. The collections of printed graphics and photography both emphasize vistas of Switzerland and portraits of famous Swiss personalities.
Swiss newspapers: from 1997 to 2018, the National Library conducted the coordinated microfilming of newspapers. It is currently engaged in the cooperative digitalisation of newspaper titles from all the language regions, which it places on the e-newspaperarchives.ch platform.
Audio documents: the Swiss National Sound Archives in Lugano, part of the National Library since 2016, collects and receives Swiss audio cultural heritage and makes it available to interested parties.
The Federal Archive for Monument Preservation (FAMP) undertakes the documentation of restored objects, including approximately two million photographs and negatives as well as plans and reports on the history of architecture, historical monuments, and landscape protection. FAMP acts as the "Swiss picture archive" and is open to the public.
An important library network is Bibliosuisse, an organisation that represents their interests and projects. They support the Biblio2030 campaign (linked to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Goals), where libraries position themselves as active members of sustainability, social justice, and equal rights’ issues.
Last update: July, 2021
In the domains of theatre, dance, musical theatre, and contemporary circus, the Confederation supports the creation of plays, the diffusion, and promotion both in and outside Switzerland, the translation and subtitling of such pieces, as well as the network between Swiss actors and international co-producers. The main political actor regarding this field is the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia.
In the last Culture Dispatch, all of the mentioned disciplines were grouped under the term "Performing arts", an initiative that has been critiqued by Danse Suisse (Swiss Association of Dance Professionals) in its reply to measures announced in the Dispatch. Critics claim that it erased the particularities of each sector, as well as their needs, which depend on their own production and professional particularities. This fusion also translates into a common performing arts prize, seen as a step back for the dance world in terms of recognition. From 2021, and in addition to the Swiss Grand Prix Performing Arts / Hans Reinhart Ring, the Federal Office of Culture will award 2-3 dance prizes, 6-7 theatre prizes and one prize each for a dance and a theatre production in the field of the performing arts.
During the 2017/2018 season, the 28 biggest professional Theatres staged around 6400 performances (inside and outside Switzerland), representing around 1.5 million spectators. The more important structures are the Opernhaus (Zürich), St-Gall Theatre (St. Gall), Schauspielhaus (Zürich), Konzert Theatre (Berne), the Grand Theatre de Genève and the Theatre de Lucerne. For the same season, public funding amounted to CH 334 million (around 316 million EUR). There is also a flourishing independent scene with smaller companies, also in rural areas. According to the Theatre Studies Institute (Bern University), in 2010 there were 380 spaces hosting performances of independent theatre, dance, and opera. These smaller spaces reach a considerable audience, for example, around 1.7 million visitors for the 2019 season (Federal Office of Culture: Culture in Switzerland - Pocket Statistics (2019)). On the dance scene, one of the key projects is "Das Tanzfest", held in 20 different cities around Switzerland.
These latter numbers also show that the main activity is concentrated in the big cities, a situation that also encapsulates the disparities between linguistic regions, and the importance of ensuring cultural exchanges within the country itself; this is recognised as an important feature of future cultural policies projects. On the other hand, the French part of Switzerland seems to be more dynamic thanks to the support of the Commission Romande de diffusion des spectacles (CORODIS). Other different successful projects from Reso – Reseau Danse Suisse have taken place to promote exchanges between centres.
Another issue is low level of investment in diffusion, which is very limited both nationally and internationally, thus limiting audiences for Swiss performing arts. The limited access to European networks is a challenge, as well as the need to expand international touring and visibility. The example of the 2019 dance event Panorama Danse shows the disparity between production and diffusion funds, particularly for independent companies and reveals the importance of cooperation.
Besides the artistic disciplines mentioned, musical theatre and contemporary circus have recently gained momentum, and are also seen as being in need of more considerable funding.
This information will be published as soon as possible.
Last update: July, 2021
According to the "Taschenstatistik"/Statistical Data on Culture in Switzerland 2019, the cultural and creative economies in Switzerland operate mainly as cultural and creative companies that have a main commercial goal through the creation, production, distribution, and exploitation of cultural goods and services.
The publication by the FOC points out that the distinction between profit or public utility, and public subvention or private, is very blurry. Indeed, the sector benefits from these multiple potentials of value creation.
According to the 2018 Report on Creative Economies published by the Zurich Centre for Creative Economies (ZCCE, Zurich University of the Arts), there are 13 different submarkets that can be identified, such as the music industry, book market, and art market. This report "attempts to capture the complex creation, production, dissemination and exploitation processes of the creative industries and their submarkets."
The basic information below reveals the significance of the Swiss creative industries in 2015 compared to the country's overall economy.
In 2015, roughly 284 000 persons were employed in Switzerland's creative industries, in around 75 000 businesses. This represented 11 % of Swiss businesses and 6 % of all employees. The creative industries generated an estimated Gross Value Added (GVA) of CHF 23 billion and an estimated turnover of CHF 60 billion. This corresponded to almost 4 % of Switzerland's GVA and 2 % of Switzerland's total turnover.
In recent years, growth in the creative industries has been more positive than in the overall economy. This dynamic development is expected to continue. Between 2013 and 2015, the average number of employees in all submarkets increased by 2.4 %, the number of businesses by 6.4 % and GVA by 5.4 %. Thus, the creative industries, a complex of different economic activities, grew significantly more than the overall economy, where growth is roughly one fifth lower for businesses (+ 1.9 %) and about half lower for the number of employees and for GVA (+ 3.2 % and + 2.5 % respectively).
Concerning regional distribution, Zürich remains the main hub for creative industries along with Basel, an observation that brings the urban/rural divide back into play again and would benefit from further exploration.
Zurich Centre for Creative Economies: Creative Economy Report Switzerland 2018; (p. 49) higher resolution
Zurich Centre for Creative Economies: Creative Economy Report Switzerland 2018; (p. 48) higher resolution
Zurich Centre for Creative Economies: Creative Economy Report Switzerland 2018, (p. 81) higher resolution
Zurich Centre for Creative Economies: Creative Economy Report Switzerland 2018 (p. 80) higher resolution
New models of collaboration – Culture and Business
As part of the "Culture and Business" programme (2016-2020), the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia has been supporting design and interactive media since 2016. Now, not only do they take a priority seat, but they are also integrated into the realm of the institution's funding categories. Changes in innovation and creation also create new conversations between Art, technology, and science, which have become of major importance for artistic creation and the creative industries. On these terms, Pro Helvetia is encouraged to support further partnerships with research and education opportunities. Since 2021, the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia has been running its own department that provides sustainable support for Swiss creatives in the two specialist areas of design and interactive media.
Working conditions
According to data from the Federal Statistical Office (Cultural workers: Number, socio-demographic profile and working conditions (2021)), the share of employed cultural workers in full-time employment in Switzerland has decreased from 55.7% to 49.8% of cultural workers between 2010 and 2019 (before Covid-19), while the share of part-time workers (< 50%) has increased from 20.5% to 22.5%. The (consistently) high proportion of women among part-time workers (< 50%) is striking: 31.9%, compared to 13.4% for men (2019 data). The number of self-employed in the cultural sector (definition by the FSO), has increased from 41.5% to 45.1% between 2010 and 2019.
Last update: July, 2021
The Confederation supports publishing houses, the creation of contemporary literary works, their translation, dissemination and promotion both in and outside Switzerland. Since 2016, the Federal Office for Culture has implemented a specific strategy (mainly financial) to support Swiss publishing houses and their cultural activities. According to the results, for the 2019-2020 period, 35 small publishing houses benefited from this strategy.
Encouragement based on linguistic diversity is an important factor, as well as the translation of works in one another languages.
The diversity of the Swiss press reflects the federalist and multilingual structures of Switzerland. However, the printed press faces challenges due to diminishing numbers and concentration of newspapers due to closures. In response to this situation, the Federal Council agreed on the 29th April 2020 on the importance of new measures of support to the printed media, by broadening the conditions of previous measures. The package of measures adopted in 2021 (120 million CHF) includes, among other things, more money for cheaper delivery of daily and weekly newspapers; for the first time, money for online media; and finally, more support for the media system as a whole - for news agencies or for the training of media professionals.
New challenges await the book market as well through the digitalisation changes. This includes the birth of new literary forms that need to be considered (especially ones that use interdisciplinary methods) and a decreasing trend in book sales.
Support measures announced in the 2021-2024 Culture Dispatch include funding for writing and editing processes, championing the role of translators, and support for publishing houses in a Swiss and international context.
Last update: July, 2021
Under the direct management of the Federal Office of Culture, Cinema is one of the most important sectors. The federal cinema policies have as a goal to encourage Swiss creation as well as to ensure the diversity and quality of films shown, to reinforce the Swiss cinematographic culture, and finally to conserve and make accessible this patrimony. Other important strategies concern the digitalisation of the market (production, exploitation, archiving) in parallel with changes in consumer patterns that directly affect the Swiss cinematographic creative landscape.
Switzerland has a vivid cinema field, despite the difficulties faced with the non-integration of European cooperation programmes. According to the official statistics, from over 10 000 fiction movies produced every year globally, around 500 make their way to Swiss screens. Many film festivals play an important role, creating a space for promotion and interaction, which fortifies diversity and film exploitation.
Three tools are available to encourage the film sector: selective subventions (taking into account the diversity, quality, and exploitation of the production), subventions linked to previous success (taking into account the number of entries and international success), and investment in Swiss cinematography. The results of these measures are often calculated and readjusted. The regional funding activities of the Zurich Film Foundation and of the Cinéforom Foundation in French-speaking Switzerland (since 2012), together with funding by cantons and municipalities, complement the federal film funding provided by the FOC.
The Audiovisual Agreement (Pacte de l´Audiovisuel) signed periodically between the Swiss Radio and Television Broadcasting Society (SRG SSR) and seven professional associations in the cinema field, makes it the biggest actor in the promotion of cinema. In the recently signed 2020-2030 agreement, the SRG SSR engages to contribute around CHF 32.5 million per year to film (including animations) and television productions, as well as supporting the upcoming digitalisation challenges (such as online broadcasting). Other national and regional television broadcasting societies contribute to Swiss cinema, along with different regional, cantonal and inter-cantonal organisations. Another important tool is the one allowing trans-national co-productions; the percentage of Swiss participation is still a matter of encouragement.
The new "Promotion for investment in Swiss cinema" (PICS) is another important public tool to support filmmaking. In 2019, according to the 2019 annual report of the FOC, PICS funded 26 projects with a total of CHF 6.1 million.
According to the Culture Dispatch 2021-2024, these are the challenges to come:
Paying particular attention to online platforms and changes to the traditional way of watching movies, and what it means to creation, production, distribution and exploitation matters; paying attention to transnational co-productions in order to push Switzerland to the front and keep an equilibrium between majority and minority productions; monitoring of gender equality in the long-term; promoting Swiss films abroad; and developing strategies to maintain the equity between actors in terms of mandatory film support, especially considering online platforms.
Compared to other audiovisual and interactive media, video games are the first fully digital cultural asset. The Swiss video games industry is in constant expansion and today represents an important share of the creative industries market. In 2019, 130 companies were partially or fully committed to game production (5 times more game SMEs than in 2010). Platforms such as "Producer Workshop", first launched in 2019, attest to the importance of partnership in the knowledge exchange on game production, network, and professionalisation. In 2019, the sector had around 590 employees and generated profits of CHF 150 million, with Zurich and the Lemanic Arc leading the way.
The Federal Council rapport on Videogames also attests to the growing importance of this sector, and the great innovation qualities of Switzerland at the forefront of videogame production. On the consumer's side, the Swiss Interactive Entertainment Association (SIEA) evaluated in 2014 around 1.5 million active players, that have a medium age of 30 years and spend 5 to 6 hours per week playing. According to the Federal Statistics Office, 55% of the population plays occasionally, and 30% plays at least once a week.
Many events are also seeing the light in Switzerland, such as Ludicious in Zurich or Numerik Games in Yverdon-Les-Bains. Other organisations are pushing Swiss video games such as: the Swiss Game Developers’ Association (SGDA), the IGDA Switzerland Chapter, the Swiss Interactive Entertainment Association (SIEA) and the Swiss e-Sports Federation.
For further Interactive Media information see chapter 3.5.5
Last update: July, 2021
The Confederation supports the creation and dissemination of new musical works inside and outside of Switzerland. Music holds a particularly important place in Swiss society, whether through school programmes, via private listening, or professional and amateur practices (see chapters 5.2 and 6.2). The Confederation supports extracurricular music education through its national programme "Youth and Music", as well as contemporary classical music, jazz, pop and folk music works. It also has extended this frame to interdisciplinary art forms that include music and musical theatre.
Extending the notion of "work" to new forms of musical creation is very important, as well as considering the research and production phases of creation, more support to international promotion in festivals and tours, and taking into account changes in music listening through streaming platforms.
According to the Creative Economy Report Switzerland 2018, "the turnover from audio and video streaming increased by 50% to CHF 34.4 million and thus contributed 39% to the total market. On the other hand, the decline in the download business, which still amounted to CHF 18.1 million (-17%), continued and thus already fell well short of the streaming segment." While the global recording industry now generates 62.1% of its revenue from streaming (Global Music Report 2021, IFPI), the share in Switzerland in 2020 was 76% (possibly exacerbated by the impact of the COVID 19 pandemic) (annual figures, IFPI Switzerland).
SUISA is the Cooperative Society of Music Authors and Publishers in Switzerland. Established as a cooperative association in 1923, it now numbers about 37 000 composers, lyricists, and music publishers. SUISA collects the remuneration to which its members are entitled for the public use of their works in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. According to the 2020 Annual Report (possibly influenced by the impact of the COVID 19 pandemic), CHF 120.4 million of the CHF 155.9 million in revenue from copyright (including ancillary revenue) went to publishers, lyricists and composers in 2020 (CHF 87 per CHF 100 received). Broadcasting rights account for the largest share (64.27 million in 2020), especially the corresponding revenue from SRG broadcasts. The other revenues include performance rights (2019 (pre-COVID-19): 52.1 million CHF), reproduction rights (2020: 4.3 million CHF), streaming/download (2019 (pre-COVID-19): 5.5 million CHF), blank carrier remuneration in the audio sector (2020: 7.8 million CHF) and total revenue from abroad (2020: 11.6 million CHF).
Through the FONDATION SUISA, Swiss music was promoted at home and abroad with CHF 2.4 million in 2020. Along with the FONDATION SUISA, the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia supports artists in international activities. Pro Helvetia also supports programmes that specifically aim to enable Swiss music, such as Oeuvres Suisses, and provide continuous support to orchestras.
The field of contemporary pop music is specifically promoted by, among others, the Popkredit of the City of Zurich (since 1983; departmental credit for 2020: around CHF 1m) and the RFV Basel (founded in 1994 as a non-profit association), which operates under a performance contract (Leistungsvertrag/service agreement) with the cantons of Basel-Stadt and Basel-Landschaft (annual budget: around CHF 667 000 (2020)). The cultural budget for alternative, club, youth, pop or subculture of all genres in Basel-Stadt will even be increased in future: On 29 November 2020, the "tip initiative" was accepted with a yes vote of just under 58 per cent, which demands that five per cent of the cultural budget of Basel-Stadt (instead of about 3.5 per cent as before) be used for this area.
Big efforts are made in terms of gender equality and access by associations such as HELVETIAROCKT, which would need to be translated into other layers of policymaking.
Last update: July, 2021
Since 2021, the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia has been running its own department that provides sustainable support for Swiss creatives in the two specialist areas of design and interactive media.
Under the title of "New models of cooperation - Culture, and Business" (See chapter 3.5.1), the Confederation set the bases on the 2016-2020 period to encourage young creatives to develop and innovate in the areas of design and interactive media (counting videogames as the principal sector and Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality technologies), considering their potential on the commercial level, both national and internationally.
This new model follows the projects "from concept to market" offering not only financial assistance but also coaching, mentoring measures and possibilities to present the projects at national and international trade fair and festivals.
Under the umbrella “Swiss Games" and "Design Switzerland", the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia supported growing participation on different international and national stages, giving a space to young creators to show the pioneering qualities of technology in Switzerland. The Federal Council, through the report "Video games. A domain of cultural creation in development" (2018), recognised the high quality of these productions and agreed to support and encourage further developments in the long run. In the Culture Dispatch 2016-2019, both design and interactive media are jointly addressed. The following challenges have been identified:
Research and production in design (along with promotion and presentation), stimulating subvention of third parties (along with network creation, professionalisation of developers, etc.), long-lasting structuring of interactive media sector, promoting exchanges in Switzerland, as well as international diffusion and promotion, and acquisition of works.
The Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia, which is responsible for developing these funding strategies, has issued its fifth call for projects in the field of interactive media (2019). Ten projects were selected from 42 applications. The selected projects received funding at different developmental stages, for example, during pre-production, production or distribution. The goal was to support studios in establishing themselves on the market.
The Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia’s ‟Culture and Business” focus supports the development, production and distribution of video games, virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) technology, interactive comics and other forms of digital content demonstrating a high degree of interactivity. Specific mentor and coaching partnerships, as well as special measures to interconnect young creators and developers with professional networks, have proven to be successful. More international attention is planned to reinforce visibility and access to markets.
Last update: July, 2021
According to the 2017 Tourism Monitor Switzerland, tourism connected to heritage is at the top of international visitors' activities: historical sites, churches, and cathedrals, museums and exhibitions, castles and fortresses. The cultural offer is of great economic importance. According to official figures, tourism generated around 2.8 % of the country's gross domestic product in 2015 and employs around 4 % of the working population.
Switzerland's cultural heritage as a cultural resource forms an important basis for the supply-oriented strategy in destinations, including heritage sites ("Ortsbilder"). The Federal Inventory of Heritage Sites of national importance (ISOS), which is the responsibility of the Federal Office of Culture (FOC), classifies around 1200 heritage sites (2020) as worthy of protection and of "national importance" (e.g. the villages in the Lower Engadine). The ISOS provides a planning basis for the federal government, cantons and municipalities to ensure high-quality settlement development, which also has an impact on cultural tourism offerings.
Several initiatives have emerged to promote historical sites and landscapes (see chapter 3.1).