This year’s gathering of the great and the good has been entitled “Shaping the Post-Crisis World”. Companies may be struggling in the downturn, but judging by strong demand for places at the World Economic Forum in Davos, they are anxious to find out how to survive the recession.

At the hotels, shops and restaurants of the Swiss alpine town which has hosted the meeting for almost four decades, the arrival of more than 2,500 bigwigs, acolytes and assorted hangers on remains big business.