Is the Nice Carnival going to become an export product? Faced with tourism that is no longer thriving and which, in the future, will have to face increasingly aggressive international competition, new markets must be explored.
After thoroughly examining European customers, followed by American and Japanese ones, it is now China’s turn to be the target of efforts by actors from the Côte d’Azur.
But the traditional formula of sea-sun is no longer as effective as it once was. Today’s customers are not easily led and must be offered an impressive product if not a unique one.
For Nice, what could be better than its Carnival, which has worldwide fame and suits the taste of the Chinese public who love anything resembling a spectacle.
Weren’t the Chinese the ones who invented fireworks, after all?
During the trip organized by the PACA Region to China two weeks ago, a delegation of elected officials and tourism professionals went to Xiamen, Nice’s twin city.
An agreement was reached with the municipality of this city of 5 million inhabitants, located in southern China facing Taiwan, to export 10,000 km from the Mediterranean, the Carnival made in Nice and its traditional flower battle. This will be in late April 2017.
For the City of Angels, the stakes are enormous, with the promotion of the city in all Chinese media.
The carnival workers will build the characters in module form, which will be sent to China by boat. They will supervise the reassembly on site.
The Nice carnival, whose floats attracted some 400,000 spectators in 2016, will feature “energies” of all kinds for its 2017 edition.
The fifteen days of the 2016 Carnival generated 2.1 million in ticket sales with 143,580 tickets issued for seats, an improvement on the previous year.
Enough to give good hope for the Chinese edition and dream of a massive exodus to Nice of customers charmed by Nice’s expertise.
