
Lucerne coach tax puts brakes on tourist influx

The number of tourist coaches stopping at Schwanenplatz in the centre of Lucerne was down by two-thirds in April, compared to the same month last year. This is a direct consequence of the introduction of a coach parking tax introduced on April 1, authorities say.
+Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox
Fewer coaches also stopped at Löwenplatz in Lucerne. The decrease compared to the same period last year was 22%, the city of Lucerne said.
In total, 2,700 coaches parked in the three car parks Löwenplatz, Schwanenplatz and Kasernenplatz in the first 30 days since the introduction of the parking fee. The latter is less frequented by coaches.

More
Lucerne considers coach tax, other measures to manage tourist influx
In contrast, the number of stops at Inseliquai, near the lake, has increased. More coaches also stopped at the Brüelmoos and Rösslimatt car parks in Kriens. According to the press release, this is due to the fact that the stopping fee already includes the parking fee for these two car parks.
The introduction of the tax should lead to a better distribution of coaches in the city and relieve the heavily frequented car parks. The city of Lucerne wants to draw a conclusion about the effect in autumn 2025.
The parking fee is CHF100 ($120) for two stops in the city centre and CHF75 for one stop.

More
Mass tourism: “We feel like employees in a theme park”
Translated from German by DeepL/sb
How we work
We select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate them into English. A journalist then reviews the translation for clarity and accuracy before publication. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. The news stories we select have been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team from news agencies such as Bloomberg or Keystone.
Did you find this explanation helpful? Please fill out the short survey below to help us understand your needs.

In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.