Davos for rent

swissinfo.ch photographer Thomas Kern has been at WEF since early this week, seeing things from the point of view of the locals who don’t have access to all the restricted areas at the Forum.

He says Davos locals will have to do without some of their favourite bookstores and cafes, as they’ve been rented (presumably at a hefty cost) to businesses like marketing giant Sales Force and even the entire country of India, which is using part of a café to promote its economy.

For its part, Facebook has built a mammoth two-story tent that, like all the other temporary booths and installations, will be torn down again in less than a week.

Right next to the Kirchner art museum in Davos, an international team built a multi-story tent for Facebook’s corporate headquarters at WEF. The work had to be finished by Tuesday evening. Thomas Kern, swissinfo.ch

 Even the University of California Berkeley has rented a storefront in town.

A Davos wool cap in the colors of the University of California Berkeley. UC Berkeley has rented a store front which is otherwise a local small jeweler. Thomas Kern, swissinfo.ch

 Kern, who has been going to WEF for years, says the conference has expanded into the town “in the last few years” as space in the Congress Centre got tight.