While awaiting the effectiveness of the strategy implemented by Christian Estrosi in terms of innovative activities, tourism remains a significant part of the economic activity in Nice and its region. It represents nearly 20% of the local GDP, which says a lot!
The transformation of the 49 municipal offices of metropolitan municipalities into branches of a single “committee” with a unified strategy and more significant shared resources.
Yesterday, after the municipal elections in March and June, the Metropolitan Committee completed the season of elections and nominations with the re-election of Christian Estrosi as President and Rudy Salles as Deputy President, effectively the operational number one. Colette Fabron, mayor of Saint-Etienne-de-Tinรฉe, is Vice-President.
No surprises on that front, since the former is increasingly the lord of the place and the latter, removed from the city council to give his place to his daughter Jennifer, who is also a regional councilor, has long acted as the minister of Nice tourism. It is noteworthy that the City of Nice does not have a tourism deputy (in the previous mandate it was… Rudy Salles), which proves its choice to carefully focus strategy and action in this Metropolitan Office.
The future objective, made even more difficult by the health contingency that has significantly impacted the activity, is simple: “We must captivate and attract clientele to the territory by presenting all the facets of an extraordinary destination while reassuring them about health protocols,” affirmed Rudy Salles after the election results.
Previously, Christian Estrosi took advantage of the presence of territory representatives to assess the situation.
His analysis is both optimistic and pessimistic: “After a virtual halt in tourist flow between April and June, the current catch-up is reaching an impressive pace even though the summer season of 2020 will, unsurprisingly, be significantly lower compared to previous years,” he said before listing the figures.
According to these, hotel occupancy rates for the first 15 days of August are 88% (-4.6% compared to 2019) in Nice, 87.6% for the Alpes-Maritimes, and show a significant increase in attendance in August compared to June (occupancy rate 14%) and July (51%).
Christian Estrosi also emphasized, based on attendance figures from local tourist offices, the healthy situation this summer in the “high country,” an area that notably includes the Mercantour National Park. In the first fifteen days of August, the deficit of visitors in the “high country” tourist offices was only 6% compared to last year, against 50% for the mid-country and 59% for the coast.
The global Covid-19 pandemic has profoundly affected international travel for months, and consequently, the flow of foreign tourists, particularly Russians, Americans, and Asians, on the Mediterranean coast in particular.
Elected officials and industry professionals, given the stakes, look to the autumn with concern. Additionally, they will be deprived of significant events, such as Ironman, Triathlon, and the Nice-Cannes Marathon, for health reasons. They have just managed to save the Tour de France, albeit in a reduced edition.
The situation has hit hard; resilience and the ability to bounce back will be required to regain former glory.
