How much money do congresses bring to the city ? The SEMEC (Société d'économie mixte des évènements cannois) has one its accounts : 1.38 billion francs and some 3.500 direct or indirect occupations.
What is the spin-off of huge investments done in the congress center ? This is a question that is posed in Cannes with the construction of the Palais des Festivals extension, the Espace Riviera (an exhibition surface of 6.500 m2) opened last November and which final cost will be up to 200 million francs. Until now, the SEMEC (Société d'économie mixte des événements cannois) which manages tourism in Cannes had only assessments done by the Bank of France. Two years ago, there were around 1.2 billion francs of direct or indirect spin-off generated by the sole Palais des Festivals (seminaries, incentives and others in the Croisette deluxe hotel were not taken into account).
An total impact assessed at 3.48 billion francs
Since last year, the SEMEC has another accountancy tool, the France Congrès association), which has the advantage of existing and providing an harmonisation of statistics for French congress centers. According to this calculation method, the Palais spin-off 1999 have been the following : direct economic impact of 217 million francs (palais payroll charges, local and regional fiscal system, consumption, investments); indirect economic impact of 1.16 billion francs (conventioneers expenses on an average basis of 2.000 francs, accommodation, catering, shopping, transport).
The third kind of spin-off is the induced economic impact. It is a kind of multiplying power of the circulating money. This impact is figured by assigning a coefficient of 1.53 to the two amounts previously obtained (2.1 billion francs). Which gives a total economic impact of 3.48 billion francs.
Of course, it is still possible to contest the validity of such a calculation method. But, at least, it offers an identical basis for everyone and now it allows comparisons from a year to another.
In Cannes, as the France Congrès accountancy has been applied since 1998, we realize that the Palais has increased compared to last year. The total economic impact has increased by 17.48% from a year to another, while the number of overnight stays has increased by 9% (580.000 overnight stays registered by the Palais). As far as employment is concerned, figures presented by the SEMEC are the following : 300 direct occupations (palais employees), 3.422 indirect jobs and 6.800 induced jobs. Such figures, obviously, are in favour of business tourism which has become the speciality in Cannes…