Prostitutes gather in Davos for the annual gathering of the global elite – where demand for sexual services soars during the economic boom

The global elite grappling with the world’s biggest problems at the Davos summit – including gender inequality – is fueling a wave of prostitution in the Swiss seaside town.

The demand for sex work soars every year as world leaders and businessmen from around the world flock to do business.

During the five-day summit, which began on January 16, escorts will be booked into the same hotels as powerful bosses and their employees.

A prostitute named Liana said she wears business clothes so she doesn’t stand out among drivers, even though prostitution is legal in Switzerland.

She told Bild that she regularly sees an American who visits Switzerland several times a year and is one of the 2,700 conference participants.

Liana charges around 700 euros for an hour and 2,300 euros for the whole night, plus travel costs.

The head of an escort service in Aargau, 100 miles from the summit, says she has already received 11 bookings and 25 inquiries – and expects many more to follow this week.

She told 20 Minutes: “Some also book escorts for themselves and their employees to party in the hotel suite.”

Salome Balthus, sex worker and author, tweeted: “Going out in Switzerland during #WWF means looking at security guards’ snouts in the hotel corridor at 2am – then sharing the restaurant’s giveaway chocolate with them and over the Hands to clap … #Davos #WEF .”

The demand for sex work soars every year as world leaders and businessmen gather

The 36-year-old stayed the whole summit in a hotel near Davos, but does not want to reveal who the influential customers are.

She warned, “Trust me, you don’t want to sue them.”

At least 100 prostitutes traveled to Davos for the 2020 summit, according to a Swiss police official polled by The Times.

An official manager of the forum said he had picked up a sex worker who claimed she was forced by her “boss” to sleep with an elderly customer at a delegates’ hotel.

Topics to be discussed at this year’s summit include the war in Ukraine, global inflation rates, climate change and inequality.

Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska will deliver a rare international address at the annual meeting today.

The Covid-19 pandemic has torpedoed the event for the past two years, but a spring version took place eight months ago.

Alain Berset, President of Switzerland, Olena Zelenska, First Lady of Ukraine, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission and founder of the World Economic Forum, Klaus Schwab, pose together today

Dozens of sessions on Tuesday, with actor Idris Elba, will focus on issues as diverse as gender equality, the return to manufacturing, the green transition, efforts to end tuberculosis and the intersection of food, water and energy.

Among the speakers are Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He.

Nearly 600 CEOs and more than 50 leaders are expected, but it’s never clear how much concrete action will result from the elite event.

The elite gathering is regularly peppered with critics who argue that those present are too distant or too profit or power oriented to serve the needs of ordinary people and the planet.

Throughout the week, critics and activists will be waiting outside the conference center in Davos to call policymakers and business leaders to account.

It began on Sunday when dozens of climate activists, some dressed as clowns, braved the snow, waving banners and chanting slogans at the end of Davos Promenade, a thoroughfare now lined with shop logos from major companies such as Accenture, Microsoft, Salesforce, Meta . as well as rural houses that represent national interests.

Greenpeace International has also denounced the use of corporate jets to transport bigwigs, saying such carbon-spewing transport smacks of hypocrisy for an event that touts its commitment to a greener world.

More than 1,000 private jets were said to arrive and depart from Davos airports in May.

Borge Brende, chairman of the forum, acknowledged on Sunday that some government leaders and CEOs are heading in that direction.

“I think it’s more important to make sure we have agreement on how we push and push the boundaries in general when it comes to the green agenda,” he said.