This Alpine Village Pays Tourists to Hike Its Trails

The scheme is deliberately low-tech: pick up a card at the tourist office, punch it at stations along each trail, cash it in at the bakery. Five euros per trail, max one payout per person per day.

The logic is not charity. Hikers on the paid routes pass three mountain huts and a cheesemaker, and the village's own numbers show visitors on those trails spend four times the payout on food and lodging.

Neighbouring valleys have started copying the idea, and the regional tourism board is watching closely. The villagers seem bemused by the attention: "We just wanted people to see the quiet side," one says.

“Five euros per completed trail, logged by a simple punch card. It sounds like a gimmick — then you see the trail maintenance budget.”