Festival of Lights: the impact
Just a few days after the 2011 festival of lights, let’s take a look back at the positive effects of this popular and key event.
Visitors
The number of foreign visitors to the Festival of Lights increases each year. During the 2010 event, Greater Lyon Tourism Office noted that 1 out of 3 visitors came from abroad, with a majority attendance of Italians (21 %), Spanish (15 %), Swiss (14 %) and German (8%). And for the first time tourists from Asia (8 %) ranked in the top five countries represented by foreign visitors. Visitors from France (outside of the Rhône-Alpes and Ile de France regions) represented 37 %.
Guided Tours
While winter is not the most favorable period for tourism, there is a clear rise in the number of visits to the city during the Festival of Lights. During the 2010 edition, 317 visitors took the guided tours organized by the Tourism Office from 8-12 December. The welcome pavilion recorded peaks in the number of visitors, with 80% more visitors during this period.
The tourism industry
Professionals in the tourism industry tend to plan a year ahead for the event. To date, 590 tour operators and travel agencies in France and around the world schedule and promote the festival (German, Belgian, Austrian, Chinese, Korean, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, English, Swiss and Russian).
Local economy
The effects of the event are very positive for local economic actors: bars and restaurants in the city-center more than quadruple their sales by (x 4.6), hotels are booked six months in advance with some 15, 000 rooms occupied during the event, not to mention the visitors that find alternative accommodation.
A springboard for export
The Festival of Lights acts as a veritable open air showroom. Foreign delegations come to see new artistic and technological trends and also to select the works they want to exhibit in during their own Festivals.
For a certain number of artistic creations presented in Lyon, it is the beginning of a world tour and recognition for the artists.
Since 2008, over 30 pieces have been exhibited in other festivals such as Singapore’s Night Lights Festival, and the Light in Jerusalem Festival. In total, since 2008, the productions have generated over 1.5 million euros in income for the designers.
The Festival of Lights, covering all fronts!
The Festival of Lights has just begun, so here’s a list of ways you can follow the event: Website, iPhone and Android application, Facebook page, Twitter account, merchandise, the France 3 Trophy and more, … The Festival of Lights is covering all fronts!
Mobile phone application
This application will take you into the heart of the festival and will enable you to plan your trip accordingly.
Access the program to consult the events happening around you either by list, by map or by using an ‘augmented reality’ device. While you film the images around you, the ‘augmented-reality’ device will make info bubbles appear with information concerning the events happening around you.
You can also consult events by district or by theme and find practical information to help you to get there.
An interactive page will also enable you to vote for your favorite artistic project with the France 3 Trophy, to find out more about the flashmobs and to connect directly to the Facebook page.
France 3 Trophy
From 8 December, you can vote for your favorite creation. The France 3 Festival of Lights Trophy will be awarded to the winner(s) on 11 December at City Hall. Those who vote will be entered into a lucky draw to win 2 x week-end breaks for two people.
Festival of Lights Flashmobs
Be a part of the Festival by joining in 3 flashmobs:
- Retour aux sources (back to the source): Jeudi 8 December et 8pm, Terrasses de la Guillotière
- Les étoiles filantes (shooting stars): Friday 9 December at 8pm, Place Bellecour
- Vague lumineuse (Wave of light): Sunday11 December at 8pm, Esplanade de la Grande Côte.
To join in, all you have to do is to go to the right place at the right time and to follow the instructions you’ll find in the Fête des Lumières smart phone application.
Festival of Lights boutique
Visitors will be able to purchase Festival of Lights merchandise at 3 different points of sale set up especially for the occasion, as well as an online boutique!
- Boutique Rue Grolée (from 7 to 12 December)
- Boutique Bellecour (from 3 to 11 December)
- Boutique Pradel (from 3 to 12 December)
Five good reasons to take part in the Festival of Lights
5 good reasons to get involved in the Festival of Lights
This year, like every year, the Festival of Lights will begin on 8 December 8 and theme will be: History meets reality!
It is an ambitious project. This year Gérard Collomb wants the event to combine tradition and innovation “with real clout!”.
For the four days of Lyon’s traditional festival, 70 attractions will be dotted across the city to the delight of an expected 4 million visitors.
5 good reasons to join in the Festival of Lights:
- After a long renovation period Saint-Jean Cathedral is back in full view.
- The ‘classics’ are being revisited: Place des Terreaux will see the horses of Bartholdi’s fountain launch into a crazy race along the square’s facades.
- For the 1st time an interactive animation will take the form of a giant pin ball game on façade of the Celestin Theater and scenes filmed by the public will be projected onto Saint Paul train station.
- Lyon council has promised a surprise for Place Bellecour.
- Operation Lumignons du Cœur will collect funds for Unicef
Many other events and surprises will occur each as intimate as they are spectacular, and as poetic as they are unique.
From a technological point of view much progress has been made and the cost of energy this year will not exceed €4000 thanks to the use of LEDs.
See the program on video:
Fête des lumières 2011: la programmation! (Lyon) par telelyonmetropole
Exquisite, luxurious & sublime, beaujolais nouveau is our best export!
50,000 visitors from around the world are expected to join the 2011 Beaujolais Nouveau celebrations: the precious AOC (controlled designation of origin) label is an economic boon for Lyon and its region.
The arrival of the Beaujolais Nouveau
The whole world awaits its arrival! People gather on the third Thursday of November every year at midnight to celebrate its arrival. This year, the world launch is set to take place on Thursday 17 November!
40 million bottles of Beaujolais Nouveau are sold within three weeks! Last year, 6 million were exported to Japan. It is a luxury product outside of France and we can be proud of this local economic success, which remains successful despite the crisis.
Beaujolais celebrations
Come to Villefranche, Beaujeu, Lyon, Belleville, Gleizé, Lacenas between 16-20 November. 30 different events have been planned this year to welcome our French, Japanese, American, Dutch, German, Belgian and even Romanian friends!
A preview
Let’s take a look at the Fête de Beaujolais Gourmand (Beaujolais celebratory tasting) in Saint-Forgeux, a sumptuous celebration that is renewed every year. In 2011 the chosen theme is ‘Scenes of women’, honoring women everywhere, after all, they are responsible for 80% of all wine purchases!
Most of the 1200 guests expected reserve their places from year to year, including major companies such as Vinci, Eiffage and Spie Batignolles. We have many loyal partners who have supported us over the past 15 years.
Recognized the world over
In addition to the national and international television channels covering the event (from as far as Korea), Inter Beaujolais will broadcast the event on 5 national radio stations: Europe 1, RMC, RTL, RFM and RTL2.
Beaujolais Nouveau is a worthy ambassador of a uniquely French savoir-faire, and a real trump card for tourism in Rhône-Alpes.
Celebrate the arrival of the Beaujolais Nouveau with us
(Prestigious evening, dinner and show, local producers’ market and a tour of the cellars)
About the author : Sylvie COMANZO, ONLYLYON Ambassador, SOLUSCÈNE
Director of Soluscène, artistic coordinator and presenter of the Beaujolais Gourmand festival.
We asked Blandine Thenet, Director of the ONLYLYON Tourism and Congress promotional tour, four questions.
Blandine Thenet, is manager of the ONLYLYON ON TOUR project and has travelled with the tour through each of the 10 stops. We take a look back over the tour which culminated in London on 8 July.
What is the concept of ONLYLYON ON TOUR ?
From 6 May to 8 July, a bus sporting the ONLYLYON colours travelled to 10 European cities to promote the city of Lyon to the general public. This unprecedented event was organised by ONLYLYON Tourism and Congress, and was joined by ONLYLYON and its partners.
Students, entrepreneurs and potential tourists were all welcome to discover the diverse entertainment and activities on offer at the ONLYLYON ON TOUR village, such as the performance by the Lyon-based hip-hop dance world champions, Pokemon Crew. The goal was to promote the city through entertainment and events. We wanted visitors to discover the quality of life and advantages our city has to offer in a festive environment.
ONLYLYON ON TOUR in London with Gérard Collomb
How did the public react?
Throughout the journey, the feedback was very positive. The people we met really appreciated our unique approach. Aside from being original, the fact that our the event employed local people really helped to create ties with the local people.
The mayors of the cities we visited were informed of our arrival by our own mayor, Gérard Collomb. Some host cities were particularly open to our approach: Marseille, Milan, Barcelona, Brussels, Frankfurt, Lille, Paris, Amsterdam…
Each stop also offered a great opportunity to meet ONLYLYON Ambassadors. In Brussels we brought together some twenty ambassadors and a few former EM Lyon students.
Did the people you met already know Lyon? What ideas did they have about the city?
The bus travelled to cities that can be reached from Lyon within 3 hours. Most people had heard of Lyon, but they didn’t have any specific ideas about the city’s activities. People from northern cities, for example, know of Lyon simply because they travel through it on their way to the south in the summer. Our information point, attended by professionals, was therefore of great interest to the general public and helped them to discover the city’s many aspects.
We also offered the public a promotional card that offers reduced-price accommodation as well as the Lyon City Card.
Tell us a little bit about London, the final destination of ONLYLYON ON TOUR.
The bus made its final stop in London on 8 July though still offering all the same entertainment. At the same time, ADERLY invited British and foreign CEOs to participate in a conference attended by Gérard Collomb. The aim of this conference entitled: “Doing business in Lyon” was to promote Lyon’s economic advantages to potential foreign investors: find out more about ‘Operation Séduction à Londres’ at the onlylyon.org website.
See more pictures of the event +
Biovision Life Sciences Forum 2011 attracts Nobel Laureates, Health Ministers and industry experts
Thierry de Lumley, who directs life sciences efforts at the Lyon Area Economic Development Agency, offers his thoughts on the successful event:
Last month we were excited to welcome some of the world’s most innovative life sciences companies and leading scientists to Lyon, for the BioVision Life Sciences Forum at the Palais des Congrès convention center.
Almost 3,000 delegates from 60 countries joined us for some lively debate on the way in which life sciences influence society in areas such as health, nutrition and the environment. We host this event every year in Lyon, and each time I come away inspired by what I’ve seen and heard.
The calibre of the speakers is truly impressive – Nobel Laureates Ada Yonath and Jean-Marie Lehn, Chinese Health Minister Zhu Chen and leading scientist Dr Leroy Hood were just some of those who shared their vision for the future. The forum also drew over a hundred students from the Rhône-Alpes region, inspiring the next generation who gathered to listen, learn and join in the conversation. They blogged about the sessions in which experts debated a variety of topics such as access to medicines for developing countries, synthetic biology, brain functioning, solutions to “cure” ageing, and the precautionary principle.
Opening Plenary Z.Chen M.Kazatchkine – Biovision 2011/03/27 © Vincent Dargent
Plus it’s great to see some of the trends we’ve watched develop over the past couple of years becoming a reality. For example, personalised medicine has now reached the point where diagnostics and drugs can be effectively tailored to the patient. At BioVision, we were able to reveal the creation of a Technology Research Institute (IRT) project for personalised treatment of infectious diseases, with a half billion Euro investment from the French government.
Opening Plenary H.Nowotny – Biovision 2011/03/27 © Vincent Dargent
Of course Lyon has long established itself as a hub for life sciences. Hundreds of companies have based themselves here so they can draw on resources such as Lyonbiopôle, and we have a reputation as one of the best places in Europe for biotechnology and pharmaceuticals. We’ll be building on our expertise with the launch of the European Institute for Systems Biology in Lyon, which will bring together biologists, pharmacists, physicians, engineers and mathematicians to tackle disease and other medical problems.
BVNxt Lounge – Biovision 2011/03/27 © Vincent Dargent
Our success stories include a young company called CTI-Lyon, a cell therapy research institute led by the dynamic Colin McGuckin, which has pioneered developments such as helping children who were deprived of oxygen at birth using stem cells derived from umbilical cord blood. Developments like this are shaping the future, and we look forward to supporting many more innovative young companies here in Lyon.
70 international exhibitors, 5000 visitors and more than a hundred robots to the first InnoRobo Robotic Summit in Lyon
Last week we welcomed 70 international exhibitors, 5000 visitors and more than a hundred robots to the first InnoRobo Robotic Summit here in Lyon.
The event was an opportunity for designers to showcase the applications of their 21st Century creations, discuss the challenges facing the industry and the vast potential for robotic technologies to transform our lives. Designs on display ranged from robots that had saved lives by entering warzones to deactivate bombs, through to home assistance robots that vacuum without the need for human intervention! Other impressive robots were capable of swimming, climbing stairs and even playing football! For robot fanatics the event was certainly a key date in the calendar but the practical applications of these futuristic innovations should be enough to enthuse even the greatest of technophobes among us.
The event was a first for Europe, and ONLYLYON hopes that it will help to put Lyon on the map as a centre for research and development within this exciting field, which has a global market estimated to be worth $85 billion by 2018. With over 80 partners worldwide, ROBOTIS CO. made a notable impact at the event, exhibit lots of products needed to design and create robots from primary schools level through to highly sophisticated precision robots, suitable for advanced research labs.
Were you lucky enough to come along to the event? Let us know what you thought by commenting on the post below.
Bruno Bonnell, who has been one of the pioneers within the industry, commented:
“Lyon is a natural hub for robotics because for 70 miles around Lyon we have a concentration of all the expertise needed – computing, design, materials, research and engineering and so on. There is great potential in the Lyon region to lead the sector. InnoRobo is taking place to give robotics a voice, Europe needs more clusters and this is the way of beginning a first step towards developing a strong cluster here”.
Some of the many stands at the event exhibiting humanoid androids, educational robots for children, home assistance machines and precise, industrial robotic arms.
The robot that vacuums your carpet, leaving you free to put your feet up!c
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Meet DARwIn OP!
Designed by ROBOTIS along with several leading universities and partners; DARwIn OP is a miniature-humanoid-robot platform with advanced computational power, sophisticated sensors and dynamic motion ability.
11 DARwIn Ops will be made available to education institutes having been fabricated by ROBOTIS and developed via a collaboration.
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Could ‘Puppy’ the robot be man’s new best friend?
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The ONLYLYON blog is back
Summer vacation is already a distant memory, so it was about time we brought the ONLYLYON blog back to front and center. This summer, ONLYLYON took some well deserved time off from the blogosphere, but didn’t get much rest!
We continued to monitor the local area marketing news (and the next issue will be dedicated to a look at everything we saw), we met our counterparts at the Eurocities meeting in Spain and at the CNER regional convention in Saumur (more about that soon, as well), appreciated Lyon’s summer and post-summer events (Nuits de Fourvière, Lyon September of Photography, Tout le Monde Dehors, the beginning of the Dance Biennial, and more) and especially, we were able to appreciate the wonderful achievement of our colleagues at the ONLYLYON Tourisme et Congrès, thanks to whom the ONLYLYON logo was displayed all summer long on Bellecour Square, right in the center of Lyon.
We were also pleased to see that the ONLYLYON widget is flourishing on Lyon-based blogs. This widget, presented here by Eric Dupin of the Presse Citron blog, enables our Lyon-based bloggers/ambassadors to promote the city through ONLYLYON news. And we are very grateful to them for this!
As for the ONLYLYON Ambassadors, we have just celebrated the 5,000th one, and are looking forward to getting our 3,000th fan on Facebook.
So is ONLYLYON a done deal? Not at all, because in local area marketing, everything is just waiting to be written, invented and experienced! There’s work left to be done!
Photo : www.b-rob.com
[Branding] Eurocities launches a working group on City Branding and Attractiveness in Lyon
![eurocities lyon [Branding] Eurocities launches a working group on City Branding and Attractiveness in Lyon](http://ilsontchoisilyon.com/blog_version_francaise/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/eurocities-lyon.jpg "[Branding] Eurocities launches a working group on City Branding and Attractiveness in Lyon")
Yesterday, Lyon hosted a meeting of representatives from 38 European cities, convened by EUROCITIES, the network of major European cities. The purpose of this meeting was to launch a working group that is to focus on Brand Management and Attractiveness in the major cities of Europe.
The participants addressed topics such as urban marketing, the creation of a brand for a city (such as the ONLYLYON brand), economic governance models and the difficulty of changing the image of a city. Around the table were representatives from cities such as Manchester, Tampere, Lublin, Katowice, Nantes and Gothenburg.
This working group will be followed by other groups of the same kind throughout 2010. Read more about it +
Soirée ONLY LYON at MOMA 2007
On December 6, 2007, Aderly, in partnership with Invest in France Agency North America and the law firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, organized an evening reception to promote Lyon at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMoMA). The event, decorated in the colors of OnlyLyon, brought together 185 decision makers and business leaders of the San Francisco Bay Area, to discover the advantages of living, investing and setting up business in Lyon.
The Consul General of France in California, Pierre-Francois Mourier, presented France’s entrepreneurial innovation, economic development and the advantages offered to foreign investors, while Former member of the Lyon bar, Brigitte Gambini, Avocat (Paris) and a Licensed Legal Consultant in Orrick’s New York office, gave an overview of Orrick’s Emerging Companies law practice and its broad experience in assisting clients in their cross-border business transactions.