Implemented projects

The two holiday regions Engadin Scuol Zernez and Val Müstair were successfully awarded the highest level "Level III - leading" of the Swisstainable sustainability programme as the first Swiss destination.

Find out more here on the project page.

With the two holiday regions Engadin Scuol Zernez and Val Müstair, the destination was the first in Switzerland to be awarded the "Sustainable destinationl" label by TourCert. Fixed components of the TourCert certification were the acquisition of various partner businesses, the establishment of a sustainability council, as well as the creation of a sustainability report with a comprehensive improvement programme.

More information on the project page.

Sustainable development is a special challenge for destinations and their stakeholders. Together with various partners, the TESSVM developed assistance for sustainable development. The core of the project is the handbook «Nachhaltigkeit in Schweizer Tourismusdestinationen» (Sustainability in Swiss Tourism Destinations).

Read more on the project page

Over a period of three years, work was carried out on the project goal of making the mineral water of Scuol and the surrounding area more visible and tangible. With the financial support of the New Regional Policy (NRP) and numerous partners, various sub-projects could be implemented. Particularly worthy of mention is the complete revision of the Mineral water trails Scuol – the central offer for getting to know the mineral springs. But products such as the miraculaua bottle or the water carafe «AUA» were also developed. Thanks to the project, there is a landmark in front of the entrance to the mineral bath Bogn Engiadina that draws attention to the topic of water, but also to the bath itself.

Many other sub-projects have been implemented or are still being implemented, as the (mineral) water positioning can be continued thanks to the cooperation with the municipality of Scuol.

Learn more about (mineral) water positioning

On the occasion of the filming of the famous boy from Guarda, the aim of the project, funded by the New Regional Policy (NRP), was to make him visible on location in Guarda and in the Lower Engadin so that guests could immerse themselves in his world. Over the project duration of 2.5 years, this goal was continuously pursued and achieved. An insight into the results shows how: The further development of the Schellen-Ursli trail, the integration of the Schellen-Ursli theme into other projects, a holiday tip Schellen-Ursli experience, the Schellen-Ursli passport for children, placemats, numerous small measures from a bell letterbox to a Schellen-Ursli museum, the local signposting, etc. By the end of the project phase, with the exception of the «Chasa Guarda» sub-project, all the planned projects financed by the Economic Development and Tourism Agency Grisons (AWT) had been implemented and completed. However, with the withdrawal of the sub-project Chasa Guarda, a unique opportunity arose in summer 2017 to invest in a Virtual Reality Schellen-Ursli Ride in the Europa-Park. This investment is forward-looking for the TESSVM and goes far beyond the topic of Schellen-Ursli.

To the offers of Schellen-Ursli

Thanks to a long-standing and very good cooperation with the Swiss bicycle specialist intercycle, based in Sursee LU, an e-bike project with the tourism organisation came about. Intercycle provided TESSVM employees with a total of six BionX e-bikes for internal use for a period of two years. At the end of these two years, the e-bikes could be sold to the employees, their relatives and locals for private use. Thus, the six e-bikes are still on the road in the holiday region Engadin Samnaun Val Müstair.

Winter tourism is facing various challenges such as the euro crisis, the decreasing number of ski days and the consequences of climate change. In order to find solutions, the TESSVM, together with the Research Group Tourism and Sustainable Development at the ZHAW, developed a basic report for successful winter tourism in 2030. This defines what a sustainable winter tourism, which takes into account all three dimensions of sustainability, entails. As a result, a success model was developed that provides for a process at destination level and measures in the areas of environment, economy and society.

The Innotour project aimed to demonstrate the economic viability of sustainable tourism offers. The Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, together with the five tourism destinations Lucerne, Biosphere Entlebuch, Arosa, Interlaken and Engadin Samnaun Val Müstair, took on this task and was able to produce useful results despite the challenging accompanying circumstances.

Not only has it been clearly proven that sustainability is not an easy task, but it has also been shown that success factors such as continuity, use of resources and a broad anchoring of the topic in the region are decisive for success. The result, a guide for interested destinations, can be found here:

Guidelines for the successful development and marketing of sustainable offers in tourism destinations (only in German)

The holiday region Engadin Samnaun Val Müstair is known for its beautiful and species-rich dry meadows with rare plants such as grass lilies, fire lilies and various orchid species, as well as for the diverse hedges of the striking terraced landscape.

After 2010, the meadow championship took place in the holiday region for the second time in summer 2015. The most beautiful meadows were sought. The meadows were examined by a jury and the colour variety, diversity and aesthetic beauty of the meadows were judged. The most beautiful meadows were awarded prizes at the award ceremony in Tschlin. The understanding of the importance of the meadows and how to deal with them was strengthened in the course of the championship.

Learn more about the Meadow Championships

In 2020, the most beautiful and diverse hedges in the Lower Engadin were awarded under the motto «We actively promote diverse habitats».

Find out more about the Hedge Championships

The destinations of the Swiss Alpine region are among the most important holiday regions in Europe. In order to remain attractive for guests, investments are constantly being made in infrastructures. Often also in those that require a lot of energy, such as technical snowmaking, holiday appartments or spa offers. The rising energy demand leads to increased greenhouse gas emissions. Especially in the Alpine region, this development endangers the natural basis of tourism. The project Climate Protection: Now and here took up precisely this problem.

Climate-friendly tourism - suggestions for destinations (PDF, in German)

The project Colliar pursues the goal of better connecting the landscape elements and ecosystems in the Lower Engadin. To this end, Pro Terra Engiadina (PTE) coordinates projects, develops appropriate measures and implements them. Pro Terra Engiadina aims to do justice to all three dimensions of sustainability (ecology, economy, society). Concrete goals are:

• to give the region acceptance as a nature-oriented holiday and recreation area.
• Promote regional agricultural products with the involvement of guests in landscape management.
• to anchor the measures for the promotion of ecological connectivity in the regional structure plan.
• to cooperate within the Rhaetian Triangle and with other Alpine action areas.
• to expand the activity of the Foundation.

In spring 2014, a training course organised by the Colliar project was held for excursion leaders, nature guides and hiking guides. The purpose of the training was to further educate the responsible leaders of experiences, so that the cultural and landscape values can be conveyed correctly on the one hand, and on the other hand, a contribution can be made to the protection and preservation of these values.

Based on archaeological-historical research in the Silvretta region on the Austrian and Swiss border, new cultural-historical-oriented, cross-border experience offers were established for locals as well as tourists.

The objectives were to create added value by developing new content-related offers and activities for existing and new guests, to promote cross-border cooperation on the basis of a specific theme, and to research and communicate the Silvretta region as a cultural landscape that has been used and shaped by man for thousands of years and continues to do so today. To this end, scientists (archaeologists, historians, cultural scientists, geographers and geoinformaticians) worked closely with tourism associations and companies as well as municipalities and municipal associations on site. After the research work was completed, the TESSVM took over its further processing for tourism. For example, the Silvretta Historica was integrated into the tourism communication.

The tourism offers that resulted from this are the interactive hiking map and a training course for the destination's hiking guides.

Discover here the hikes to the Silvretta Historica

The new agricultural policy provides for the payment of landscape quality contributions that enable the targeted maintenance of traditional cultural landscapes. The concept of contributions was concretised on the basis of pilot regions. The TESSVM worked in the accompanying group of the pilot region Ramosch-Tschlin to determine indicators for landscape quality.

As part of the project «Holidays without a car» by the VCS, the WWF and the University of Applied Sciences of Western Switzerland, guests were to be encouraged to travel to mountain regions without a car. As a pilot project region, the destination Engadin Scuol Zernez created innovative offers for visitors without a car between 2008 and 2010. Since the end of the project, these have been continuously developed:

Guests can book packages that include public transport and have their luggage delivered directly to their accommodation. The experience offers are coordinated with the times and places of public transport. Since the summer of 2010, the TESSVM, together with the RhB and PostAuto AG, published a free regional timetable with all public transport offers in the region for ten years.

«Inscunter» is a model project in rural areas. Thanks to the project, synergies between tourism, forestry and agriculture, nature conservation and landscape protection are used. On the basis of concrete projects, exemplary cooperation was initiated, initial experience gained and a cross-sectoral network established for the future.The Inscunter project involves the Office of Forests of the Grisons, the Swiss Ornithological Institute Sempach, Tourismus Engadin Scuol Samnaun Val Müstair AG, the Foundation for Landscape Conservation Switzerland, the Swiss National Park and the WWF.  This project is financially supported by the Federal Network for Rural Areas consisting of: Federal Office for Agriculture (FOAG), Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN), Federal Office for Spatial Development (ARE) and State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO).

The achievements and results of the Inscunter project were taken over by the Pro Terra Engiadina and can thus be continued in the long term.

From 2003 to 2006, the destination Engadin Scuol Zernez was a pilot region in the «Enjoy Switzerland» project. The aim of the project was to secure the quality of service and hospitality in the destination in the long term. To this end, processes were optimised and tourism offers were developed that make the quality of the region tangible for the guest along the entire service chain.