Friday night was the anniversary of the French Riviera Cruise Club. It was an opportunity to recount the journey of this association that actively contributes to the tourist appeal of the department.
Created by Jean Claude De Troch in 2007, the French Riviera Cruise Club has changed significantly. Creation of a website, opening to social networks, participation in the international cruise fair, creation of a vast catalog of thematic stopovers… Today, the club has more than 300 members.
Presided over by Pasquale Hattemberg (Deputy for Tourism at the Villefranche/Mer Town Hall) and Michel Chevillon (Member of the board of the Nice Côte d’Azur Chamber of Commerce and Industry), the club’s objective is to unite all tourism professionals, continue to make themselves known to cruise companies, and also raise local decision-makers’ awareness of the economic impacts generated by their activities.
This Côte d’Azur cruise club is unique in that it only moves within the region’s ports. Nice, Cannes, Antibes, and Villefranche/Mer are its main mooring points. This year, more than 700,000 passengers are expected, a large portion of whom are foreigners (Germans, English, and Americans). This represents nearly 40 million euros in economic impact for the department.
“The first reaction we heard was to say, here’s yet another thing where they will meet twice a year to eat at the port, and in a year, we won’t hear about it anymore. Well, I want to say frankly, those who thought that were really wrong because ten years later, we’re here,” explains Michel Chevillon to his amused audience, before inviting them to meet again in ten years.
