When it comes to the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, many countries are planning their bids, but there is one thing certain, Switzerland will not be of those countries vying.
Primed as the favorite to host the 2022 Winter Olympics at ritzy St. Moritz and Davos, voters in Graubuenden canton (home to the ski resorts) rejected the proposal with 52.7 percent against. The turnout was about 59 percent, according to Bloomberg.
The project had a price tag of 2.46 billion Swiss francs ($2.6 billion) and had been touted as a tool for boosting the region's "infrastructure, economy and tourism, as well as global publicity," according to the committee pushing for the Olympic bid, stated by Bloomberg, but, the "no" voters rejected that claim.
"The vote of the electors is a big disappointment," the bid team said in a statement, according to Yahoo.
Switzerland has not hosted the Olympics since the 1948 St. Moritz Winter Games, even as Alpine neighbors Austria, Italy and France have each taken two turns in that time.
The expected St. Moritz-Davos bid had a very strong backing within the Olympic committee, and was conceived by the Swiss presidents of the influential ice hockey and skiing governing bodies.
International Ski Federation leader Gian Franco Kasper, a native of St. Moritz, told the Associated Press he doubted persuading an alliance of local environmentalists, farmers and socialist groups.
"This will be very difficult," Kasper said in January 2012. "Why should the people of Arosa or Laax or Flims say, 'We shall spend our tax money for the rich people in St. Moritz?'"
According to Yahoo, Sunday's vote found revealed strong opposition from residents in Chur, a gateway town at the foot of the mountains.
With the Swiss now out of the race, it opens up the field to other countries to bid.
Reports state that officials in Spain, Norway and a combined Poland-Slovakia bid have expressed interest.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
