The guest perspective has often been lost in the past, explains Giger in his presentation. With mountain bike offers, people still wanted (and still want) to please everyone: The farmer, the hunter, the hiker, the landscape conservationist, the forestry office, and in the end you end up with a watered-down product that can no longer meet the needs of the mountain bike guest. There are many examples of this, Giger mentions an official route in Valais that ends in a mountain village and mountain bikers are supposed to ride back down into the valley by post bus or on the main road.

Switzerland would be ideally placed not to oversleep mountain bike tourism, but to lead the way as a pioneer. No other country in the world has enshrined the construction and maintenance of hiking trails in its constitution. While single trails are largely legal between Geneva and Romanshorn, southern Germany is struggling with a two-meter regulation and Austria is fighting for access for mountain bikers on forest roads. Switzerland would have a unique position here, which it would simply have to exploit more confidently.

It's not all evening yet. All signs indicate that there is now a lot of movement in mountain bike tourism. Switzerland Tourism is ambitiously jumping on board, many destinations are following suit, mountain railroads are taking a serious look at the clientele and hotels are also increasingly recognizing the great potential. And thanks to the quality offensive by Switzerland Mobility, the umbrella organization for signposted mountain bike routes in Switzerland, a breath of fresh air is also blowing through the offices of the authorities.Thomas Giger's twenty-minute presentation at Switzerland Tourism's Holiday Day 2016 is available as a video stream for all those who did not make it to the event or were unable to attend the talk on site.