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Content: This combined with other reports and alpine paintings started the tourism industry in the Berner Oberland. By 1800 there were resorts on Lake Thun and Lake Brienz (especially at Interlaken between the two lakes). Shortly thereafter the resorts expanded into the alpine valleys (Lauterbrunnen, Grindelwald), and began attracting English guests. However, because of the widespread poverty of the 19th century many residents of the Simmen valley and the Interlaken district emigrated to North America, Germany or Russia. In the late 19th century, new transportation links made it easier for people to travel into the valleys. The Bern-Lötschberg-Simplon railwayopened in 1913 and became the largest privately owned railroad in Switzerland. The collapse of the hotel industry during both world wars forced a diversification of the economy. After 1950 a new wave of hotel construction of hotels and holiday homes and apartments, led to a strong population growth. Starting in the 1930s and increasingly after 1950 funiculars, cable cars and chair lifts opened up many of the high alpine villages for winter sports and tourism. [ 1]
Geography[edit]
Location of the Oberland administrative region in the Canton of Bern
The Berner Oberland designates primarily an area around the upper valley of the Aarewith its many larger and smaller side-valleys.