With the Monaco Yacht Show set to take place next week there is a very brief window in which to review what was an exceptional year for the Cannes Yachting Festival which closed its doors on its anniversary edition last week.
Spanning six days and spread across two of Cannes’ ports, 528 exhibitors, 600 boats ranging from 2.1 to 65 metres including 214 new vessels, and 50,000 visitors.
For its fortieth anniversary, the exhibition further strengthened its position as Europe’s largest in-water nautical exhibition. On the business side, exhibitors expressed great satisfaction right from the start of the exhibition and, at the end of the six open days, confirmed that they received a quality, informed and increasingly international clientèle (with the return of Russian and Asian clientèle and new clientèle coming from eastern European countries), looking to discover new products and eager to finalise a purchase.
An indication of this enthusiasm is that some boat builders are predicting a return in their sales to the level attained before the 2008 crisis.
Over the 6 days of the festival, the economic benefits have been assessed by the Calculateur de Performance Globale, developed by UNIMEV (Union Française des Métiers de l’Evénement) and the Comité Régional du Tourisme Paris Ile-de-France, based on a methodology built in conjunction with the Ministère de l’Economie and audited by EY (Ernst & Young).
These show significant economic benefits for the local and regional players and have been assessed at €58m. Service providers associated with the organisation or serving exhibitors also saw turnover of more than €21m while the benefits for the tourism sector reached €37m
Hotels accounted for 11 million, restaurants and catering 5.6 millions, local transport; 2.3 millions, retail; 4.7 million, national and international access transport; 12.6 million