Davos

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Davos
Image:Wappen Davos.png
Canton	Graubünden
District	Prättigau/Davos
Coordinates	46°48′N 9°50′E
Population	10,998 (December 2003)
Area	254.48 km²
Elevation	1560 m
Postal code	7260 Davos-Dorf 7270 Davos-Platz <tr><td>SFOS number</td><td>3851</td></tr><tr><td>Website</td><td>www.gemeinde-davos.ch</td></tr><tr><td>Twin towns</td><td>Aspen (USA), Sanada (Japan), Chamonix (France)</td></tr>
Image:Karte Schweiz.png Davos

Image:Luftbild Davos.jpg

Davos is a town in eastern Switzerland, in the canton of Graubünden, on the Landwasser River.

Davos is famous as the host to the annual meetings of the World Economic Forum (WEF), an annual meeting of global political and business elites, which is often referred to as simply Davos. It is also known as a winter sports area, including serving as the site of the annual Spengler Cup ice hockey tournament, which is hosted by the HC Davos local hockey team.

Davos became a popular destination for the rich and ailing because the microclimate in the high valley was deemed excellent by doctors and recommended for lung disease patients. Arthur Conan Doyle wrote an article about skiing in Davos in 1899. Davos is also the setting of Thomas Mann's novel Der Zauberberg (The Magic Mountain), which takes place at a sanatorium.

In the natural ice age, Davos, and the Davos Eisstadion was a mecca for speed skating. Many international championships were held here, and many world records were set, beginning with Peder Østlund who set four records in 1898.

Subsequently, Davos became famous as a ski resort, especially with citizens from the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. After a peak in the 1970s and 1980s, the two-part city has re-established itself as a leading, yet less high-profile, tourist attraction.

The five main ski areas are:

[edit] Pronunciation

English-speaking broadcast journalists covering the WEF, along with many speakers at the Forum itself, commonly mispronounce the town's name by emphasizing the a and mispronouncing the o as to make the word rhyme with "moss", e.g. DAAH-voss; pronounced correctly, the emphasis is on the o, and rhymes with "verbose", e.g. da-VOSE (dävôs)