Bureaucratic Avalanches and Alpine Pragmatism: The Reopening of Camping Riverside

The reception desk at Camping Riverside in Reckingen is currently operating at maximum capacity. Camper vans and cars towing caravans arrive in a steady stream, keeping owner Pim Beijen thoroughly occupied. With guest numbers up by a fifth compared to the previous year, the business is thriving. Yet, just a few months ago, this same plot of land was the victim of a sudden bureaucratic decree that threatened to derail the summer season in the Goms region.

In March 2026, the cantonal building commission of Valais ordered the immediate closure of thirteen campsites. The justification rested on a sudden reassessment of natural hazards. Following the severe flooding of June 2024 and the Blatten rockfall in 2025, authorities concluded that people sleeping in tents were inadequately protected against avalanches and floods compared to those in solid houses. It was a revelation of staggering obviousness, translated into a heavy-handed mandate designed to eliminate risk entirely.

For local operators, the decree was baffling. The municipality of Goms, hosting three of the affected sites, refused to accept the economic damage. Mayor Gerhard Kiechler initiated an administrative appeal and engaged engineers to evaluate mitigation measures. This pushback revealed an embarrassing reality regarding the state apparatus. The canton had actually been aware of the risks since 2020, when its natural hazards department sent a warning letter to the municipality.

More absurdly, the local government in Reckingen had already developed a flood protection project in response to that early warning. They were merely waiting for the canton to approve it. The cantonal authorities forcefully shuttered businesses for lacking safety measures while simultaneously stalling the permits required to build them. It is a textbook example of how a sluggish administrative body can inadvertently strangle local enterprise, creating the very crises it later claims to solve.

Pragmatic sense eventually prevailed over administrative paralysis. The canton finally authorized the delayed flood protection project, allowing Camping Riverside to reopen just in time for the tourist season. The required infrastructure was implemented without a protracted shutdown, rendering the initial panic entirely unnecessary. Local officials and business owners managed to salvage the season despite the regulatory hurdles thrown in their path.

Today, guests from places like Ried-Brig are back, unbothered by the theoretical dangers of Alpine rockfalls or floods. The temporary shutdown caused no lasting financial ruin for the operators, though it left lingering frustration regarding the cantonal building commission. If authorities had processed the initial safety plans with the same urgency they applied to shutting down the local economy, the episode could have been avoided. Instead, the Swiss tourism sector proves once again that it succeeds not because of the state's foresight, but in spite of its sluggishness.

Written by Thorben Thiede thorben.thiede@alpineweekly.com