What better way to underline your ambitions for business tourism than withcreating a Convention Bureau ? While most of France's major destinations have a department dedicated to business tourism professionals and the marketing of their MICE offer, the opposite is true, this is rarer for medium-sized towns. With the exception of Cannes, no doubt, but also, since last May, La Rochelle. " There can't be many towns the size of La Rochelle that have a Convention Bureau." says Nicolas Martin, Director of La Rochelle Tourisme & Événements.
The project had been in the pipeline for some time and was based on the fact that, on the one hand.., La Rochelle Tourism & Events operated the conference venues, the Espace Encan and the Halle Perthuis, and on the other, the tourist office was busy attracting leisure travellers. But until now, there was nothing between the two to attract business tourism customers for the La Rochelle Tourisme & Événements spaces and for all the city's tourism players. " They had been waiting for such a launch, underlines Nicolas Martin. Especially as the impact of business tourism is spreading to more sectors than just leisure. Sound engineers, florists, entertainment workers: all these professionals are delighted to be part of this dynamic."
The creation of this Convention Bureau will be accompanied by the development of communication and promotional tools, which until now have been non-existent, in particular the first version of a meeting guide to be published in September. La Rochelle Tourisme & Événements is also going toenhance your website with the presentation of the city's entire business tourism offering, not just its own spaces. " From there, it's just one thing after another. We'll be presenting a project next autumn for the year 2023." says the director of La Rochelle Tourisme & Événements.
This energy federation La Rochelle's tourism stakeholders will also be taking part in trade shows, holding bi-monthly networking meetings and setting up a club run by La Rochelle Tourisme & Evénements in conjunction with the town's tourism and Chatelaillon Plage departments, which already includes almost 90 professionals. All this to meet one main need: boosting off-peak periodsfrom December to April, as we set out to win new customers. " At the end of June, we could have filled the city ten times over, because we had so many requests, but there are times when we need to mobilise more." explains Nicolas Martin.
Of course, beyond this 'four seasons' positioning of the destination, La Rochelle has no pretensions to playing in the same league as Paris or Lyon, as it does not have the infrastructure to host major international conferences. The Atlantic town concentrates above all on corporate and leisure events. national or intra-regional conferences on the Atlantic seaboard, being halfway between Nantes and Bordeaux, and between Brittany and Spain, with good access from Paris.
To win over organisers, La Rochelle's tourism industry - and it's obviously not alone in this - is focusing on a very topical issue: eco-responsibility. While La Rochelle Tourist Office has obtained the Quality Tourism mark last May, the launch of a Convention Bureau will be accompanied at the end of the summer by a project aimed at improving the carbon footprint of the events and tourism industries. A project already initiated by La Rochelle Tourisme et Evénements, which is aiming to obtain the ISO 20121 certification by the end of 2023, in parallel with a process to obtain the Sustainable Innovative Destination label.
In this context, while Work has begun on extending the Espace Encan's main hallIn order to increase its surface area from the current 3,500 m2 to 5,000 m2 by the end of 2023, and to provide more space for events or to be able to host two events at the same time, a second phase of work is planned to upgrade the energy model. " This is still under consideration, but investment should be earmarked for this purpose from 2024." says Nicolas Martin.
This should sustain business that is already back on a high. " Between projects that had been postponed and new events, we set out to do a record 2022 in terms of sales and attendance. For example, this week La Rochelle is hosting Sunny Side of the Doc, which is a bit like MIDEM for documentaries. Its visitor numbers have returned to 2019 levels" says Nicolas Martin. However, the director of La Rochelle Tourisme & Événements is always cautious when it comes to talking about the future. with the geopolitical context and this prankster virus."
