“Davos man” can sleep easy. Voters in the Swiss alpine town on Sunday strongly backed plans allowing the annual meeting of the world’s great and good to stay for at least the next 10 years.

In a closely watched local referendum, an unusually high proportion of Davos’s 5,900 voters turned out to support a SFr38m ($33m €25.3m, £22m) extension of the town’s ageing conference centre. Under a deal with the council, the World Economic Forum has promised to remain in Davos for at least the next decade if the scheme – 75 per cent of which will be funded locally – is approved.