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Zermatt is famed as a ski resort and as a general tourist destination. Until the mid-19th century, it was predominately an agricultural community; it was "discovered" mid-century by British mountaineers, whose conquest of the Matterhorn made the village famous world-wide.

The town is car free, although motor vehicles are permitted with permission from the cantonal police (generally granted only to some permanent residents). Most visitors reach Zermatt by cog railway train from the nearby town of Tasch. Trains also depart for Zermatt from farther down the valley at Visp. The only passenger vehicles operating within Zermatt are the tiny electric shuttles that hotels provide to carry visitors from the town center to the hotel properties.

Zermatt is a starting point for many hikes into the surrounding mountains, including the Haute Route that ultimately leads to Chamonix in France. A complex of cable cars and chair lifts carry skiers in the winter and hikers in the summer; the highest of them leads to the Klein Matterhorn, a small outcropping on the ridge between Breithorn and Matterhorn that offers spectacular views in all directions.

It is also possible to cross into Italy via the Cervinia cable car station, a spectacular rack and pinion railway line, the highest open-air railway in Europe, runs up to the summit of the Gornergrat at 3089 metres; Zermatt is also one terminus for the Glacier Express connecting to St. Moritz.