Tourism experienced its first upswing between 1880 and 1914 with the connection to the railway network. The number of overnight stays remained modest, but the guests were solvent. The first major changes in the settlement pattern of the villages came with the construction of spacious hotels. In addition, the first narrow-gauge and cogwheel railways were built. The tourist centres of this phase were the Bernese Oberland, the Valais and Graubünden.

In the interwar period (1918-1939), Alpine tourism experienced a severe slump due to the economic recession, and many hotels had to close. The construction of the first aerial cableways (from 1927) and ski lifts (from 1934) for winter tourism were important milestones.

Mass tourism in summer began in the mid-1950s. Large parts of the Alps were now opened up for tourism. Guesthouses, small hotels and aerial cableways leading to panoramic peaks were built. The expansion of the area used for tourism affected about half of the Alpine region. After a long boom phase (1955 to 1975), the number of overnight stays stagnated in many places, and from the beginning of the 1980s they even declined in many smaller communities with a focus on summer tourism.

Mass tourism in winter, on the other hand, which had only begun in the mid-1960s, showed strong growth until the mid-1980s. Numerous communities developed into two-season resorts with a tourism monostructure. The guiding principles were medium-sised hotels for upmarket demands, ski lifts were linked across valleys to form "ski circuses". This development took place mainly in the medium-sised and large tourist centres, as small communities could not finance the expensive infrastructure. The expansion of tourist facilities created overcapacity when the boom ended in the mid-1980s. Winters with little snow from 1987 to 1990 intensified the competition. The first regions began to make themselves less dependent on the weather with snowmaking and “snow cannons” to artificially extend the winter season.

In the most recent phase, different regions have set different priorities, which has led to a differentiation of supply. Due to increasing ecological problems caused by mass tourism, many municipalities are increasingly focusing on sustainable tourism, especially in national park regions. Other places are trying to mitigate the concentration on the winter or summer season with year-round offers in the sports, health, wellness or outdoor sector. Snow cannons are now standard in all winter sports resorts, even the smaller ones.

Italy: In the Italian Alpine region, large tourist centres such as Cortina d'Ampezzo emerged during the Belle Epoque. In the Cottian Alps, Ses-trière, 2000 metres above sea level, was opened in 1930, a prototype for later retort winter resorts. Under Mussolini, Cervinia was built on the south side of the Matterhorn, which today is linked with Zermatt to form a ski circus. Characteristic of these tourist centres is that they are economically and culturally independent, with no connection to the surrounding area. Only in South Tyrol did small-scale tourism structures with family-run hotels and holiday flats develop.

Switzerland: Switzerland was the tourism leader in the Alpine region in the 19th and early 20th centuries and remained so until the post-war period. The hotels from the Belle Epoque were joined by private holiday homes and flats from the 1960s onwards. At the same time, there was a functional change from high-altitude resorts to winter sports centres with sports hotels (for example Arosa or Davos). The density of tourist resorts with 200,000 or more overnight stays is relatively low in Switzerland, not least because of the high price level.

Austria: Austria has actively promoted modern tourism development, for example by promoting private room rentals. This resulted in a decentralised and small-scale structured offer for summer tourism, which was largely built up and managed by locals, as in many valleys in Tyrol and Vorarlberg. With the transition to mass tourism in the winter season, problems arose because only some of the providers wanted to grow on the required scale. As a result, many small and medium-sised businesses were displaced, especially in the western parts of the country (for example Lech, St. Anton, Ischgl, Sölden). In recent years, a new tourism region has formed based on thermal water in the southeast Styrian-Burgenland area. Spas and hotel complexes have given strong economic impulses to this rather structurally weak, agricultural region.

Slovenia: Tourism in Slovenia has benefited enormously from EU accession in 2004. In addition to typical winter sports centres such as Kranjska Gora, there are summer destinations such as Bohinj and health resorts such as Bled, and on the edge of the Alps there are also some thermal spa locations. The rivers of the region are a popular destination for water sports enthusiasts.