In a spacious office in central Geneva, the director of the canton’s Economic Development Office was outlining the advantages of the city — the business-friendly environment, the security, the multinational population.
But is it boring? The question stopped Daniel Loeffler in his tracks. He rubbed his chin. “No,” he said after a long pause and in a voice scarcely resonant with self-belief. “There’s the theatre, the opera, lots of exhibitions and lots of restaurants. And you can be on the ski slopes in half an hour.”
Although his arguments are indisputable — Geneva Opera is staging Wagner’s Parsifal this spring and the Domaine de Châteauvieux restaurant serves a memorable dish of lobster à la plancha — they may seem lightweight to City golden boys.
“This is a Calvinist town and there’s no nightlife here,” said Sarah ClarBoson, chief executive of Palladio Alternative Research in Geneva. “If you’ve got a flashy, show-off lifestyle, then it’s not for you.”
That view is widespread — although usually voiced less bluntly — and constitutes one of the main obstacles facing Geneva, along with the rest of Switzerland, in the quest to attract the financial sector away from London. “It can be a personal sacrifice to come here,” Mrs Clar-Boson said.
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Glocals, a website for expatriates, highlighted some of the leisure activities on offer: salsa lessons, a Nordic party, skydiving and hiking.
A video showed a recent drinks night laid on for newcomers. They wore V-neck jumpers, spoke in soft tones, sipped their beer and insisted they were enjoying themselves.
François Micheloud, who advises on relocating to Switzerland, said: “If you like the great outdoors, this is the place to be. But if you want to spend £50,000 in an evening, it is not.”
It could hardly be otherwise in a nation shaped by Jean Calvin, the 16th century French theologian who saw luxury and self indulgence as vices.
Nathalie Garolle, a Geneva-based consultant at Kinetic Partners, where she advises hedge funds on relocation to Switzerland, nevertheless sought to paint the country in a favourable light.
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“It’s not as boring as it sounds,” she said. “We do have fun here.”
But she said Switzerland tended to attract managers aged in their 40s and 50s, often with children in boarding schools elsewhere. “The sort of people who come here want to maintain a very low profile.”
Many are drawn to the Vaud canton, which lies on the eastern edge of Lake Geneva amid snow-capped mountains and hillside vineyards. Others prefer Geneva’s residential Carouge district. Some move to Cologny, the ultra-wealthy town known for its private security guards and the prestigious Geneva Golf Club.
They face two main problems, besides the absence of a wild party culture. Housing is in short supply in Geneva and so are places in the city’s English-speaking schools. Geneva’s exclusive International School — which costs up to SwFr28,235 (£16,930) a year — is notoriously hard to get into.
“But in the end no child is left without a school place,” Mr Loeffler said.
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As for Geneva’s other advantages: “It’s relatively small so you very quickly meet other people here,” he said. “And as 40 per cent of the population is foreign, you won’t feel out of place wherever you’re from.”