OECD Culture and Local Development.pdf - PACA

2. LOCAL DEVELOPMENT BASED ON ATTRACTING VISITORS AND TOURISTS
• The International Animated Film Festival at Annecy (FIFA) does a better job at
this festival-market melding. It started in 1960 as a trade show, and the authorities
decided to make it permanent by creating a technology park for the film and
animation industry (CITI). The market aspect of this festival is more significant,
then, because it benefits from a growing infrastructure in terms of projection studios
and film processing labs. In 2002, the economic spin-offs from the festival were
estimated at €3 million for the city of Annecy (spending on wages, employment,
equipment rentals and technical facilities), to which may be added the tourism
spin-offs and the tremendous boost that the city enjoys from the festival’s
intensive national and international media coverage. The festival’s impact is felt
not only in the importance of the associated markets. It has also inspired :
Art markets
• the award of a diploma in multimedia design and production, in collaboration
with the multimedia section of the Gobelins school;
• the establishment of a permanent exhibition on filmmaking techniques at
the Musée Château d’Annecy; and
• the arrival of entrepreneurs in the filmmaking and multimedia business.
The art market (apart from public auctions) relies in business terms on the big
fairs, with their international drawing power. Art dealers know that, whatever the cost
of participating in a major international fair like Art Basel, FIAC in Paris, or ARCO in
Madrid, their survival depends on it. The host cities benefit, as do festival towns, from
the influx of visitors (largely foreign) and from media coverage. In 1999, ARCO (Madrid)
drew 166,000 visitors, FIAC (Paris) 80,000, Cologne 70,000, Basel 52,000, Chicago 37,000,
and Brussels 13,000 (Benhamou et al., 2001). These visitors generate tourism spending,
on top of spending on accommodation and restaurants by the selected exhibitors (many
of them representing foreign galleries: for example, FIAC 2000 counted dealers from
20 Italian, 18 American, 13 Belgian, 11 German and 11 English galleries among its
exhibitors (Santagata, 2003). Then there are the expenditures involved in holding the
event itself: stand rentals, insurance, printing of invitations, etc. Stand prices vary,
and the trend is upwards: for example, in 1999 the price at Chicago was €320 per square
meter, €180 at Basel, and €183 at FIAC. A young Parisian dealer estimated that his
participation at FIAC 1999 cost him €10,000 (stand rental, picture hangings, invitations,
etc.), while a dealer from outside Paris estimated his cost at €15,000 (adding in
transport, insurance and accommodation costs).
As these fairs have thrived, the number of “biennials” has multiplied. Although
their point is not to sell art, their tourism spin-offs are just as great as those of the
fairs, because they generate great visitor numbers and turnover 60 .
CULTURE AND LOCAL DEVELOPMENT - ISBN 92-64-00990-6 - © OECD 2005 81