Heidi-induced tourism

Lorenzo Bagnoli (University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy)

Who hasn’t heard of Heidi, the Swiss girl created by Johanna Spyri in 1880, who lives with her grandfather in a remote mountain cabin and tends the goats alongside her young friend Peter? Translated into some 60 languages and with approximately 50 million copies sold, the novel has also been adapted numerous times for film and television.

The reasons for the book’s success are, of course, many, but one is undoubtedly that, within a simple, fresh, and immediate narrative framework, Heidi perfectly embodies the Alpine stereotype that, born in the 18th century, consolidated in the 19th, and surviving into the 20th, has in many respects reached us today unchanged. The contrast between the corrupt city and the virtuous mountains is, in fact, an ancient yet still widespread stereotype, especially in the context of tourism (Camanni, 2004). Furthermore, the historical and political period in which the novel was published was highly favourable to it, as it was the opportune moment for the national hero William Tell to be joined by another heroine equally in love with and proud of her Alpine homeland. Furthermore, the late 19th century was the period when children’s literature emerged and developed in Europe (one need only think, in the case of Italy, of Carlo Collodi’s famous Pinocchio, published in 1881). Finally, another reason for the novel’s success was that it was easily illustrated, so much so that in every country – starting with a German edition from 1881 – there were numerous printings accompanied by illustrations (Dellamonica, 2004).

Beyond literature, Heidi’s success quickly conquered the silver screen as well. The very first film was American, a 1920 short directed by Frederick Thomson, but it wasn’t until 1937 that Shirley Temple propelled the little Swiss shepherdess to the pinnacle of success in cinema as well. After the war, in 1952, Luigi Comencini shot a film in Switzerland that was still in black and white, but in 1955, Franz Schnyder directed one in colour for the first time. Numerous other versions followed, in 1965, 1978, 2001, 2005, and 2015.

None of these productions, however, had as strong an impact on the Alpine imagination as the animated TV series produced by the Japanese director Isao Takahata in 1974 (Audisio & Valperga, 2004). Comprising 52 colour episodes of about 22 minutes each, the “anime” has been continuously rebroadcast ever since, to the point of becoming perhaps the best-known version of Heidi for entire generations of children – and today, for adults as well. The distinctive faces of the characters, Heidi’s little voice, the St. Bernard dog Nebbia (who, incidentally, does not appear in the novel, but was added as an unmistakably Swiss element), the goats, and the postcard-perfect Alpine landscapes have likely been the most immediate images and sounds that come to mind for over fifty years whenever the name Heidi is mentioned (Dollinger, 2004).

The remarkable success that the figure of Heidi has enjoyed for about a century and a half could not fail to stimulate the interest of her fans, young and old alike, in the sites associated with her (Newby, 1989). This is how tourist flows began to be observed toward these locations, which, at first, could rightly be considered literary tourism (Capecchi, 2021). With the proliferation of film adaptations we have witnessed, it has become progressively more difficult to distinguish whether this was still tourism induced by reading the novel (literary tourism proper), or by watching one of the numerous films (film-induced tourism) or television programs (TV-induced tourism) that have featured the character of Heidi. Therefore, one can speak of a generic “Heidi-induced tourism,” regardless of the medium that motivated the tourist to visit the shepherdess’s locations (Bagnoli, 2022).

The first step was to identify the places the story’s protagonist might have visited, starting with the mountain hut. The opening of the novel is quite precise in this regard, so much so that it can be followed just like a travel guide. From the Maienfeld train station, in just under an hour –nowadays along a modern paved road through vineyards – you reach the hamlet of Rofels, divided into two groups of houses called Unter Rofels and Ober Rofels. The latter, situated at an altitude of 658 meters, is the “Little Village” of the novel, and from there another rural road actually branches off; in just one hour at a brisk pace, it leads to an alpine hut, nestled in a landscape strikingly similar to that described in the novel, at an altitude of 1,111 meters.

In addition to the detailed descriptions, this location of Heidi’s literary setting is also supported by several letters from the 1930s in which a friend of Johanna Spyri wrote that her mother used to take frequent walks with the author in the very vicinity of Rofels. Furthermore, the alpine hut dates back to roughly the first half of the 19th century and may therefore have actually been visited by Johanna Spyri. The illustrations in a Swiss edition of Heidi published in 1916 also unmistakably evoke Ober Rofels, tracing this location back more than a century and thus making it a highly plausible hypothesis.

All of this led, especially from the end of World War II until about the mid-1990s, to a steady stream of visitors spontaneously making their way to Maienfeld. As early as 1953, to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Johanna Spyri’s death two years prior, a fountain featuring a sculpture of Heidi was erected in St. Luzisteig, in the countryside surrounding the town, and it became a favourite destination for many hikers. Thanks especially to the creation of themed trails in 1978, these visitors often made their way to Ober Rofels to visit what they called “Heidi’s house” – where it is believed Johanna Spyri actually stayed – or climbed up to the mountain hut to see where Heidi lived her happy life. Isao Takahata, too, in the early 1970s, as he was preparing to produce the “anime” based on Heidi, travelled to the site to make sketches and take photographs, and based on these, he created his drawings (Frongillo, 2013).

In 1995, the last residents left Ober Rofels, so a group of local entrepreneurs decided to build a full-fledged theme park there, which was officially opened in 1998 and named Heididorf (“Heidi Village”). Subsequently, various buildings were constructed or adapted for tourism, and the process is still ongoing. In 2001, the road leading to the hut (renamed “Heidialp”) was improved and equipped with appropriate signage and twelve intermediate stops (“Heidiweg”). Today, Heididorf consists of a charming little themed village featuring Heidi’s house, the barn, the school (housed in the old town hall of the Walser minority), a goat pen, a fountain, an exhibition hall, and a gift shop with Switzerland’s smallest post office attached. Since the alpine hut – now used as a bar-restaurant – is, as we have seen, only reachable after at least one hour’s walk from Ober Rofels, a replica has recently been built in Heididorf that is quite similar to the original but entirely identical to the one appearing in the 1976 “anime.” We have thus witnessed the curious process in which an image first replicates a real object and, subsequently, that image is in turn reified for tourism purposes.

Heididorf’s success is remarkable, as evidenced by data provided by its Board of Directors. In the years before the pandemic, total annual visitors consistently hovered around 140,000, but during the pandemic year, this figure dropped to just under half (-55%). In 2021, however, there was a modest recovery (+15.5%), and by 2022, pre-pandemic visitor numbers were first matched, and then surpassed.

Regarding the origin of visitors, it is worth noting that those from Asia and the Middle East – who, prior to COVID, constituted the largest group of foreign visitors, even outnumbering Europeans – practically dropped to zero in 2020, but have partially returned since 2021. Domestic tourism bucked the trend, seeing a significant increase in 2020 (its absolute value more than tripled), while in 2021 it was the only category to decline. This data clearly demonstrates that local tourism is an opportunity that is effectively leveraged during times of crisis but quickly abandoned as soon as the situation begins to improve.

It is also worth noting that the theme park – open daily from mid-March to mid-November and, during the rest of the year, only on weekends when the weather is nice – has managed to avoid negatively impacting the local area while maintaining a certain charm. Tourists often admit in their comments that they were surprised by the modest size and simplicity of Heididorf, yet at the same time greatly appreciated these qualities. Heidi, in fact, could only be the ambassador of a proper way of relating to nature and society in a fragile environment such as the Alpine mountains and highlands in general. For this reason, an amusement park inspired by Heidi that did not place the values of sustainability, honesty, health, and the joy of living at the top of its priorities would have been completely unthinkable.

Heididorf is not the only tourist attraction to have used the Heidi brand. Indeed, Beritelli (2013, p. 59) argues that “the story of Heidi presents a unique set of ingredients ideal for the Maienfeld, there are other establishments that bear the name, such as the “Heidihof” (“Heidi’s Inn”) hotel-restaurant-bar, the “Swiss Heidi Hotel,” and, until recently, the “Café Heidi und Peter.” In addition, near the station is one of four information points promoting the local tourism offerings of an entire region called “Heidiland,” which roughly corresponds to the canton of St. Gallen. Also worth noting is the “Johanna Spyri Museum” in Hirzel, a town on Lake Zurich where the author attended school as a child. Finally, the project for the “Heidi Alperlebnis” amusement park in the Flumserberg ski area is worth mentioning.

How to cite this entry: Bagnoli, L. (2026). Heidi-induced tourism. In R. Baleiro, G. Capecchi & J. Arcos-Pumarola (Eds.), E-Dictionary of Literary Tourism. University for Foreigners of Perugia. https://doi.org/10.34623/zdg2-hn59

References

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Beritelli, P. (2013). Il mito di Heidi e il turismo: Heidi(land). In D. Dellamonica et al. (Eds.), Heidi. Oltre la storia (pp. 59-62). Biblioteca Cantonale di Lugano.

Camanni, E. (2004). Lo stereotipo alpino. In A. Audisio & G. Valperga (Eds.), Heidi. Un mito della montagna (pp. 11–18). Museo Nazionale della Montagna “Duca degli Abruzzi”.

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