Davos Limits Temporary Structures on Promenade to Official WEF Partners During Annual Meeting

The municipality of Davos issued a memo in April 2026 announcing new rules for the Promenade during the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting each January. The rules prohibit media companies from building temporary structures along Davos’s main street, the Promenade, and limit temporary construction there to official partners of the World Economic Forum.

Official WEF partners are primarily large global companies that pay up to seven figures for the partnership.

“The new rules are about restricting representations of companies which are not directly connected with the main event, in order to avoid overburdening the infrastructure — regardless of whether they have been present in Davos in the past or only intend to come to Davos in the future,” the April 2026 memo from the municipality of Davos states.

Media organizations and advocacy groups were prominent on the Promenade in 2026 after slipping through previous rules. To prevent NGOs or NPOs from being used merely as a pretext, the municipality requires various documents proving that the registered organisation is in fact a charitable, non-profit-oriented entity.

The memo states that social entrepreneurs, for example, are not NGOs. Going forward, no further temporary construction projects will be permitted for accredited media, the April 2026 memo states. It notes that the WEF itself already provides workspaces to accredited media.

Media companies that are paying Forum members are not subject to the restrictions, Yann Zopf said. Those include Bloomberg, Dow Jones, the New York Times, Financial Times parent Nikkei, Axios parent Cox Communications, and CNBC. Other companies can hold events on the Promenade but cannot build temporary structures, Yann Zopf added.

Gastronomic offerings will not count toward the quota of temporary structures, according to the April 2026 memo from the municipality of Davos. The municipality warns that additional rules could be added at any point and that the rules are subject to change. It is closely monitoring the implementation of the new rules and will consider stricter rules if they prove insufficiently effective.

The possibility of further tightening for the upcoming year, and the corresponding communication by early May at the latest, is signalled every year, the memo states. Semafor reported that the document reflects a desire to assert more control over the ski town during the annual January meeting. The municipality didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.