Alpi is the mascot of Swiss Activities, a Swiss booking platform for leisure experiences. He is a yellow, shaggy mountain spirit with a gnome hat, very long arms and a heart on his belly. His job is to point in the right direction, usually at something you can do in Switzerland.
A mountain spirit. The gnome hat comes from Swiss mountain folklore, where such creatures are held to be knowledgeable and helpful. Alpi matches that description, with the exception of the shyness.
Presumably, but they are not visible. That is deliberate: Alpi expresses himself through posture and movement rather than facial features, which makes him more distinctive and equally understandable in every country.
Because yellow is rare in travel, so you spot him from ten metres away. The colour is also taken to be friendly and approachable. No other one is under consideration.
Because they have to do two things: give someone a hand and point in the right direction. The exaggerated length is a design decision, not the result of training.
It stands for reliability and for the fact that somebody is looking after the experience, also after the booking. The heart is the shortest way of saying that without writing a paragraph about it.
Alpi is an illustration, so his size depends on how large you place him. At home he is in the mountains; professionally he belongs to Swiss Activities, based in Erlenbach ZH. He does not have a postal address on the mountain.
So far nobody: Alpi is drawn. His comments are written at Swiss Activities, and in the app and on the website he answers as a chat bot. A plush toy and a life-size Alpi are on the way – with the second one, somebody will be inside after all.
Yes, at swissactivities.com/chat and in the app. There he plans days with real times and prices, answers questions about your booking and, if you ask, tells you the story behind a place. He can get things wrong – the page says so too.
He understands it perfectly well, but he writes in standard German. In the chat he speaks every language the website speaks, and on social media he answers in the language of the post. The more noticeable thing is that he refers to himself in the third person. You get used to it faster than you would expect.
Because it contained something he found remarkable: a railway, a mountain, a lake, a tractor. He comments in order to put something on record, not to sell anything. If nothing comes to mind, he writes nothing.
Booking and hiring are not possible yet. A plush toy is on the way, though, and there will be a life-size Alpi as well. His channels will say when. What you can book is everything he points at — on swissactivities.com.
The reference to the Alps is hard to miss, and the name is short enough for international guests to pronounce at first attempt. There is no official naming story, so we are not inventing one here. He is simply called Alpi.
Following Alpi
Alpi turns up in several places. In one of them he answers back.
Talk to Alpi
On social media he has no profile of his own; there he speaks up through the Swiss Activities channels – usually in the comments, roughly like this:
AlpiAlpi checked: walking on water does count as a leisure activity.
AlpiAlpi has learned: in Switzerland even the trains go up the mountain on water.
AlpiEleven four-thousanders for a plate of spaghetti. Alpi respects the effort.
Channels that are not listed here are not his. Anyone who would rather not be commented on only has to say so once – then he leaves it.
Alpi checked: this page now exists. There is nothing to book here.
Alpi belongs to Swiss Activities swissactivities.com
Alpi is an illustration and the mascot of Swiss Activities AG, Seestrasse 21, 8703 Erlenbach, Switzerland. If you need image material or would like to depict Alpi, write to [email protected]. A human will answer.
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