Startling new figures on the agenda at Davos
Escorts descend on Swiss resort as the global elite gathers for summit
IT is supposed to be a cauldron of ideas where political and business leaders get to grips with global problems
But they appear to have their minds on other things too as the Davos summit sees a surge in prostitution in the Swiss resort town.
Demand for sex rockets each year at the meeting of the World Economic Forum. Escorts are booked into the same hotels as delegates during the five-day summit, which started on Monday.
Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He are among speakers this week.
Prostitution is legal in Switzerland, but a sex worker named Liana said she dresses in business clothes so she does not stand out among the global elite. She told German newspaper Bild she regularly sees an American who visits Switzerland several times a year and is among the 2,700 conference delegates. Liana charges over £600 an hour and £2,000 for the night, plus travel expenses.
The manager of one escort service said she has already received 11 bookings and 25 inquiries for prostitutes. She said: ‘Some book escorts for themselves and their employees to party in the hotel suite.’ Sex worker Salome Balthus, 36, is staying at a hotel near Davos but refused to reveal who her influential clients are, adding: ‘Believe me, you don’t want to get into litigation with them.’ She posted on Twitter: ‘Date in Switzerland during #WEF means looking at the gun muzzles of security guards in the hotel corridor at 2am – and then sharing the giveaway chocolates from the restaurant with them and gossiping about the rich... #Davos #WEF.’
In 2020, a Swiss police officer claimed that at least 100 prostitutes travel to Davos for the summit. Among the topics up for discussion this year are the Ukraine war, inflation rates, climate change and inequality.
The Covid pandemic torpedoed the event for the past two years but a springtime version was held eight months ago. Sessions are focusing on gender parity, the green transition, efforts to end tuberculosis and the ‘intersection of food, water and energy’, which will feature British Luther actor Idris Elba. Nearly 600 chief executives and more than 50 heads of state or government are expected to attend but it is never clear how much concrete action emerges from the elite event.
The elite gathering is regularly skewered by critics who argue that attendees are too out- oftouch with the needs of common people and the planet. Greenpeace also blasted use of carbonspewing corporate jets which bring delegates to Switzerland.