SHARE
COPY LINK
For members

ZURICH

Why Zurich, Ticino and Lucerne want to legalise Sunday shopping

In most Swiss cities and towns, shopping on Sundays is forbidden. Three cantons want to change that.

Shopping on a Sunday could become legal in Zurich. Photo by Arie Wubben on Unsplash
Shopping on a Sunday could become legal in Zurich. Photo by Arie Wubben on Unsplash

Government representatives in the cantons of Zurich, Ticino and Lucerne have called for a change in the rules for Sunday shopping. 

Currently, both retail and grocery shopping is only allowed on Sunday in a handful of touristic mountain cantons. 

The representatives argue a change is needed to boost tourism after the economic damage caused by the Covid pandemic. 

Carmen Walker Späh, Economics Director of the Canton of Zurich, told a media conference on Friday that Swiss cities needed to be more interesting and lively to attract tourists on Sundays. 

READ MORE: Can Switzerland’s ski season withstand Omicron surge?

“In St.Moritz you can also buy your ski equipment on Sundays. But if you forgot your swimming trunks in Zurich, you are faced with closed doors,” Späh said. 

Economic department bosses from Ticino and Lucerne were also present at the conference. 

While tourism is slowly rebounding in Switzerland despite the continued uncertainty of the Covid pandemic, Späh said the situation was particularly dire in larger metropolises like Zurich and Geneva due to the lack of business travellers. 

READ MORE: Swiss tourism rebounding despite Omicron threat

Experts believe that business travel is unlikely to return to pre-pandemic levels. 

Späh called upon “the federal council to give tourism a booster”. 

Will such a change come to pass? 

Currently, Swiss labour law prevents people in certain industries from working on Sundays, which consequentially means that businesses in these areas are closed. 

It is however possible to receive an exemption to the rules to set up ’tourism zones’ where the rules do not apply. This is the case in several resort towns where winter sport is popular. 

EXPLAINED: What are the current rules for entering Switzerland?

In order for a change in policy to become law, an amendment to the ‘no working on Sunday’ ordinance must be approved by federal authorities. 

The first step is for cantons however to canvass opinion locally on the topic and lay out areas where these tourism zones should be. 

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.
For members

ZURICH

Growth spurt: What Zurich needs to do to accommodate 2 million residents

Switzerland's biggest city Zurich is becoming more densely populated. With the population expected to pass the 2 million mark in the coming years authorities are devising plans to make it liveable for new residents.

Growth spurt: What Zurich needs to do to accommodate 2 million residents

At the end of 2023, over 1.6 million people lived in Zurich, Switzerland’s most populous canton.

But this number is far from static.

The population is continuing to grow — so much so, that it will reach the 2-million mark in the coming years, cantonal authorities said in a press release.

This means an increase of around 450,000 people within the next two decades — a 28-percent growth rate, which is “significantly higher than the Swiss average.”

The primary reason for this hike, accounting for 49 percent of the increase, is immigration, followed by births (44 percent) and, to a lesser degree (7 percent), people moving to Zurich from other Swiss regions

On one hand, this is good news because “it is evidence of the canton’s attractiveness and economic prosperity,” authorities pointed out.

On the other, however, this demographic evolution will create a number of new problems and exacerbate the already existing ones.

That is why “strategic decisions are needed on how to handle challenges facing various areas,”  cantonal officials said.

‘Dealing with consequences’

With this ‘growth spurt,’ Zurich will experience many of the same challenges as Switzerland on the whole will, as demographers are expecting the country’s population to swell to 10 million (from the current 9 million) people in the coming years. 

Just as the federal government has started to think about the best ways to prepare the country’s infrastructure for the growing numbers, Zurich’s authorities too will be “shaping this growth” and “dealing with its consequences.”

To achieve this goal, they have launched the ‘Growth 2050” project to begin in the summer, which will  examine “which approach is most suitable for strategically addressing the challenges ahead,” according to the press release.

What exactly does this mean?

While the project’s findings will not be made public until 2027, authorities will have to ensure that Zurich’s infrastructure, such as housing, public transport, as well as school and healthcare systems, will not crumble under pressure, but be able to function optimally — from both the financial and practical perspectives — in the new context.

While all these areas are important, in Zurich’s case, housing appears to be a particular problem as more residents move into the canton.

With  tens of thousands of foreign nationals having settled in Zurich in the past few years, for instance, affordable housing had become scarcer — a situation that has continued to deteriorate and is expected to grow worse as more residents continue to arrive in the future.

READ ALSO: Zurich hit by affordable housing shortage amid record-high immigration

SHOW COMMENTS