New-Year celebrations looked different across Switzerland last night after a survey by Keystone-SDA showed that Basel, Bern, Lausanne, St Gallen and several mid-sized towns cancelled or downsized their municipal fireworks, replacing them with light shows or quiet zones for animal welfare and air-quality reasons. Zurich and Geneva kept their famous lakeside displays but imposed extensive traffic and crowd-management measures.
Zurich’s “Silvesterzauber” closed several quayside roads from 15:00 on 31 December until noon on 1 January and introduced a firework-free zone along the Limmat and Quaibrücke. Up to 150 000 visitors were expected, so the city ran extra S-Bahn night trains and trams, while police discouraged private-car access. Geneva extended tram and bus services and banned personal fireworks within 500 m of the lakeside stage.
For employers the crowd-control plan has practical implications. Expatriate staff living near Zurich’s lakefront faced restricted vehicle access and noise until early morning; many firms allowed remote work on 1 January. Mobility managers bringing short-term assignees or clients to Switzerland over the holiday period had to check hotel locations, arrange rail tickets instead of cars, and ensure travellers carried residence permits or Schengen entry stamps in case of random police checks around cordoned areas.
![Swiss Cities Shrink New-Year Fireworks, Forcing Mobility Rethink for 150 000 Visitors]()
Companies and individual visitors juggling these logistical hurdles can streamline one crucial task—visa and permit formalities—through VisaHQ’s online platform (https://www.visahq.com/switzerland/). The service offers real-time requirement checks, document uploads and application tracking for Swiss and wider Schengen travel, providing peace of mind when last-minute transport or accommodation changes threaten to derail holiday plans.
Environmental NGOs hailed the trend, noting that particulate-matter spikes from fireworks can exceed daily emission limits in a single hour. Hoteliers in cities that cancelled shows warned of lower occupancy, prompting some cantons to consider regional marketing campaigns targeting domestic tourists.
Whether the scaled-back model becomes permanent will depend on crowd-flow data collected this week. Zurich will publish its post-event mobility report in February, potentially setting a template for greener, less disruptive New-Year celebrations nationwide.
Zurich’s “Silvesterzauber” closed several quayside roads from 15:00 on 31 December until noon on 1 January and introduced a firework-free zone along the Limmat and Quaibrücke. Up to 150 000 visitors were expected, so the city ran extra S-Bahn night trains and trams, while police discouraged private-car access. Geneva extended tram and bus services and banned personal fireworks within 500 m of the lakeside stage.
For employers the crowd-control plan has practical implications. Expatriate staff living near Zurich’s lakefront faced restricted vehicle access and noise until early morning; many firms allowed remote work on 1 January. Mobility managers bringing short-term assignees or clients to Switzerland over the holiday period had to check hotel locations, arrange rail tickets instead of cars, and ensure travellers carried residence permits or Schengen entry stamps in case of random police checks around cordoned areas.
Companies and individual visitors juggling these logistical hurdles can streamline one crucial task—visa and permit formalities—through VisaHQ’s online platform (https://www.visahq.com/switzerland/). The service offers real-time requirement checks, document uploads and application tracking for Swiss and wider Schengen travel, providing peace of mind when last-minute transport or accommodation changes threaten to derail holiday plans.
Environmental NGOs hailed the trend, noting that particulate-matter spikes from fireworks can exceed daily emission limits in a single hour. Hoteliers in cities that cancelled shows warned of lower occupancy, prompting some cantons to consider regional marketing campaigns targeting domestic tourists.
Whether the scaled-back model becomes permanent will depend on crowd-flow data collected this week. Zurich will publish its post-event mobility report in February, potentially setting a template for greener, less disruptive New-Year celebrations nationwide.
