Davos (population 13,000) is a town in eastern Switzerland, in the canton of Graubünden, on the Landwasser River .
Davos is mostly known as a winter sports town (where the annual Spengler Cup ice hockey tournament is played, hosted by local hockey team HC Davos), but is also host to the annual meetings of the World Economic Forum (WEF).
Its claim to fame derives from the fact that the microclimate in the high valley was deemed excellent by doctors and recommended for lung disease patients. Arthur Conan Doyle wrote an article about skiing in Davos in 1899. Davos is also the setting of Thomas Mann's novel Der Zauberberg (The Magic Mountain), which takes place at a sanitarium.
Subsequently, Davos became famous as a ski-resort, especially with citizens from the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. After a peak in the 1970s and 1980s, the two-part city has re-established itself as a leading, yet less high-profile, tourist attraction.
It is claimed to be the highest town in Switzerland and Europe.
The five main ski areas are:
- Parsenn / Gotschna
- Jakobshorn
- Pischa
- Rinerhorn
- Schatzalp