Montreux / Vevey – Overview:

The city of Montreux in the Vaud Canton and is part of the Vevey District, the city sits on the northeast shores of Lake Geneva. For many years Montreux has been a magnet for artists, musicians and writers such as Vladimir Nabokov, Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky have resided there at certain points of their lives. In more recent time, the late Freddie Mercury was a much celebrated visitor to the city, where a statue of him looks out over the lake. In the early 1970’s the British rock band Deep Purple released the iconic track, “Smoke on the water” telling of the fire that destroyed the Montreux Casino on the 4th of December 1971.

According to Promove the economic promotion office responsible for the Montreux-Vevey region, Montreux has a population of just short of 25 thousand people. The city’s economy is based primarily on tourism with many visitors arriving to attend Montreux’s various yearly festivals such as the Montreux Jazz festival. Conference facilities in Montreux are world class which combined with the cities character make it an excellent location. The city and surrounding area also enjoys a healthy real estate market, particularly with incoming foreign investors.

Travel to Montreux is relatively easy by road or rail from Geneva and takes around an hour, although taking the ferry from Geneva to Montreux and taking around five hours allows for viewing some of the finest scenery that Switzerland has to offer.