3.4 million. That is the number of unsold rooms each year on the French Riviera. Two-thirds remain unsold during the period from October to March. “In winter, it is difficult to keep a hotel open if there is no business tourism activity,” says Gaston Franco, president of the Riviera Côte d’Azur Regional Tourism Committee (CRT). Based on this observation, the CRT and its Convention Bureau had been working for several months to set up an “excellence club,” intended to be the quality label of the Côte d’Azur brand internationally. This is now a reality: Premier Events Partners – French Riviera has been born. It consists of 31 members and has a budget of 200,000 euros. “The number of members in the Club allows us to have an amount of 100,000 euros,” notes Henri Céran, director of the Convention Bureau Côte d’Azur. “The Alpes-Maritimes General Council has committed to contributing one euro for every euro invested by the members.” The first investment: organizing an event-driven communication operation next October for key influencers and strategic clients in business tourism in Europe and North America.
Besides the purely economic aspect of the initiative, the Club’s ambition is to involve professionals from the Côte d’Azur, and Monaco, in a sustainable development approach. Therefore, all its members pledge to adopt the Eco-guide. Developed by the National Association of Event Agencies, this roadmap defines, for all professions, the best practices to limit environmental impact. Another “green” commitment: members will make a financial contribution to Action Carbone (Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s Goodplanet Association) to offset their CO2 emissions. On the road to the sustainable economic development of the French Riviera!
