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the Orient Express railway line passed through the city; it had Congress of Sports Psychology and Physiology, the Congress of the same hotel was clearly impossible. The Beau-Rivage Palace by the conference’s caricaturist, was without doubt the result of a
several excellent hotels and boasted a temperate climate even in Olympic Regulations (1921), and in 1933 the first major congress hosted the important British delegation, as well as those from Japan great deal of diplomatic manoeuvring behind the scenes (fig. 4).
winter; the League of Nations could help with the organisation of Rotarians which was attended by over 1000 participants. These and Turkey and the American delegation, while the French and The 184 official delegates were joined by a pack of
of the conference by providing experienced secretarial staff and events show that Lausanne, situated some 65km from Geneva, was Italian delegations stayed at the Lausanne Palace and the Greeks press correspondents, guest speakers and a raft of personnel
translators; and Lausanne’s central position made it easily accessible well placed to hold important diplomatic conferences. were accommodated at the Hôtel Savoy. All of the participating involved in the day-to-day running of the conference (hotel and
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for the delegates. These arguments were echoed in the Gazette During the period immediately following the First World War, nations were thus spread out between various different hotels in communications staff, police and security), who did not stay in
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de Lausanne of 24 October 1922. The fact that King George had the list of hotels in Lausanne numbered some forty establishments the city. the luxury hotels (fig. 5 and table 1).
stayed at the Beau-Rivage Palace in the winter of 1882 and that divided into three categories: nine category ‘A’ hotels, topped An article in the French illustrated news magazine While some of the participating nations came to Lausanne
Lord Curzon himself had visited Switzerland several times is also by the Beau-Rivage Palace (with 320 beds) and followed by the L’Illustration ironically commented: ‘The Conference of Lausanne with the aim of dismantling the Ottoman Empire and redrawing
likely to have affected the decision. However, the most forceful Lausanne Palace Beausite (with 200 beds); ten category ‘B’ hotels; essentially comprises two huge hotels connected by a funicular. The British, the map of Asia Minor, the conference had a quite different, and
arguments put forward by Lord Curzon were political in nature: and eighteen category ‘C’ hotels, bringing the total number of Americans, Italians and Romanians have taken up residence down below, unexpected, outcome: the birth, and international recognition,
holding the conference in a neutral country meant that each of beds to 2730, of which half belonged to category ‘A’. The list by the lake; and the French, Turks and Japanese are staying at the top. of a new country, Turkey. The wry reporter for L’Illustration
the major powers could take turns in chairing the meetings and also indicates the overall trend in Lausanne towards luxury hotels, Clustered around these two poles are an infinite number of islets of different demonstrated an acute understanding of the political situation
commissions. He also wanted the negotiations to take the form of beginning in the middle of the nineteenth century with the sizes, where the other participants are all accommodated, making a lovely when, in December 1922, he suggested that the Allies might be
round-table discussions (rather than great public debates), which building of the Beau-Rivage, and continuing into the twentieth hotchpotch: Russians, Bulgarians, Serbs, Greeks, along with several others making too many ‘concessions’ during a conference which ‘was
required the necessary infrastructure combining comfort and ‘a century with the opening of the Lausanne Palace in 1915 (fig. 3). from countries not officially invited: Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Armenia, supposed to create peace in the Orient [and] was labouring under the
peaceful, discreet environment’ . Georgia, India, Arabia, etc.’ 10 most appalling of circumstances […] which had persistently dogged it’.
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At the time, Lausanne offered impressive, modern hotel POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY AND THE ORGANISATION Although the hotel topography took into account the The ‘appalling circumstances’ were political, since the conference
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facilities. The hotel industry had undergone a revolution during OF HOTEL ACCOMMODATION specific circumstances of the event, it did not perfectly reflect the had been hastily convened as soon as the situation on the ground
the nineteenth century, the outmoded hotels of the previous In 1922-23 there were two main venues in Lausanne capable wider geopolitical situation, beyond keeping Greece and Turkey at had swung decisively in favour of the Turkish nationalists.
century having been replaced by a more up-to-date hotel of hosting large-scale diplomatic meetings: the Hôtel de la Paix, arm’s length, and separating Britain and France, whose diplomatic
concept, in response to the new holidaying habits of nineteenth- located a few hundred metres from the Lausanne Palace in the relations were extremely strained at the time. None the less, the Country No. of delegates
century travellers. Numerous new hotels were built, and existing city centre, and the Château d’Ouchy, situated on Lake Geneva, great powers shared the most luxurious hotels, the Beau-Rivage American delegation 8
ones upgraded. These improvements were part of a business and right next to the Beau-Rivage Palace. The empty Château was Palace (‘the luxury spa hotel’) and the Lausanne Palace (‘a transatlantic British empire 25
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marketing strategy to promote Lausanne as a tourist destination. In finally chosen, despite protests from Lausanne business and shop liner carrying all the races of the world’), where you could find the France 26
1880 the Society of Lausanne for the Public Interest was founded, owners who lobbied the Council of State and demanded that Japanese and Romanians. Delegates from Greece (one of the Greece 15
which would merge with the Society for the Development the city council compensate the Hôtel de la Paix on a monthly countries at war) were marginalised during the conference, and Italy 18
of Lausanne a few years after the creation of the Swiss Hotel basis for the loss of its clients. The conference’s inaugural speech, sent to the Hôtel Royal. America’s status as independent ‘observer’ Japan 14
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Association. In 1892 the first issue of the periodical Hôtel-Revue given by the president of Switzerland (as representative of the host did not prevent some of its delegates from staying in the same Roumania 7
(or Revue Suisse des Hôtels) was published, along with the first nation), was held in the great room of the Casino de Montbenon, hotel as the British. The French were accommodated with their Kingdom of Serbia-Croatia-Slovenia 6
Almanach of Swiss hotels, which was followed in 1896 by the and the treaty-signing ceremony along with the closing speech Turkish ‘allies’. The Château, site of all the diplomatic negotiations, Turkey 39
first Swiss hotel guide produced to coincide with the national took place almost eight months later in the assembly room of the was in full view of the Beau-Rivage Palace, where Lord Curzon Bulgaria 12
holiday. After the First World War, Lausanne continued to develop Palais de Rumine. The delicate matter of where to accommodate was staying. The bipolar organisation of luxury hotels was Russia, Ukraine, Georgia 14
its convention facilities, building the Palais de Beaulieu which each of the national delegations was discussed with the Society complemented by an ‘archipelago of islets’, a network of ‘small Diverse nations in the specialised commitees :
Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Norway, the Netherlands, Portugal,
was capable of holding large-scale events. The city had already of Hoteliers of Lausanne-Ouchy and the Vaudois authorities, the luxury establishments’, as they were aptly described by the writer of Sweden, Albania.
hosted a number of important conferences: the 1913 Olympic canton and the city. Placing the delegations of countries at war in the article in L’Illustration. This tactful arrangement, ably rendered

Official price list issued by the Lausanne-Ouchy Hotelkeepers’ Association, c.1922. Table 1
Participants in the Lausanne Conference.

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