A cliffhanging Swiss hotel and restaurant made famous by a National Geographic magazine cover is looking for new management after the family that ran it for the past 31 years called it quits.

Nicole and Bernhard Knechtle-Fritsche are giving up the franchise for the Aescher guest house in Alpstein at the end of the 2018 tourist season, the government of Appenzell Innerrhoden canton said on Monday.

Local media quoted the couple as saying they could not keep up with demand given restrictions on renovation work on the site, which is perched a mile high on a cliff in northeastern Switzerland.

National Geographic had featured it in a story on "Destinations of a Lifetime: 225 of the world's most amazing places".

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