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Davos Limits Temporary Structures on Promenade to Official WEF Partners During Annual Meeting
The Swiss town issued new rules in an April 2026 memo prohibiting media companies from building temporary structures along the main street during the annual January gathering. Official WEF partners, primarily large global companies paying up to seven figures, will retain exclusive rights to such construction. The changes follow prominent media and advocacy group presence on the Promenade in 2026.
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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.
