World Heritage Experience Switzerland - WHES
For more than 10 years, the association World Heritage Experience Switzerland (WHES) has been promoting the interests of its members in the field of UNESCO World Heritage in Switzerland.
The umbrella organisation was founded in 2009 under the name of UNESCO Destination Schweiz (UDS) by tourism organisations and World Heritage promoters; in 2014, on the initiative of the Swiss Commission for UNESCO, the name was changed to World Heritage Experience Switzerland (WHES). The original idea was to concentrate the strengths of the respective tourism organisations at national level and to support World Heritage properties towards quality, sustainable and coordinated tourism. This motto - to achieve more together - still applies today.
What was initially set up in the field of tourism has been extended in recent years to the fields of mediation and management. To this end, we are committed to a holistic approach to the World Heritage. Following the motto "You only protect well what you know well", we try to reduce conflicts between protection and use. The different actors of the association are networked through WHES and benefit from common synergies.
WHES is also committed to long-term cooperation with the European Network of World Heritage Associations (ENWHA) and promotes this transnational exchange.
The association is financed by membership and partner fees as well as by contributions from the Confederation and the cantons in the form of a temporary project within the framework of the New Regional Policy (NPR).
Cooperation opportunities
WHES offers all interested individuals and organisations the opportunity to join the network. For private individuals there is the possibility of individual membership and for organisations the possibility of institutional membership.
For interested organisations, who wish to work with us more intensively, there is the possibility of membership as a partner. This is also a prerequisite for booking tourism cooperation, mediation or management packages. In the right column you will find an overview of services and costs for members and partner packages, as well as the association's statutes (documents in German).
