Lyon’s Bureau des Congrès joins the ranks of the major players

Created in 1986 as part of Grand Lyon's tourist office, the Bureau des Congrès in Lyon has the task of selling the city and its specialist business tourism facilities.   The office's director Valérie Ducaud is aided by a team of six colleagues, including three international sales executives who have the job of spreading the word largely throughout the European market.  One of them is permanently based in London, as the UK is the main European market in this industry.

"Our role is to attract big events to the Lyon area and to involve local service providers who can work together to offer a structured proposal," explains François Gaillard, MD of the Tourist Office and Bureau des Congrès.  "Our work can be separated into four main categories: promotional, ie proactive sales, including tele-sales, sales trips and client meetings.  We also take part at all of the big trade shows such as IMEX (Frankfurt), EIBTM (Barcelona) as well as the various workshops organised by Maison de la France or France Congrès mostly in Germany and Belgium.  We advertise in the trade and business press.  And our regular logistical work which requires us to work as facilitators alongside organisers (feasibility studies for clients, development of the event's terms of reference, supporting applications, inspection visits of the various facilities being used by the client, liaison with local authorities...)".

The Bureau des Congrès works in partnership with 80 service providers (Eurexpo, Palais des Congrès de la Cité Internationale, Espace Tête d'Or, incentive agencies, international incoming agencies, hotels...).   "Our work must always be fair and unbiased when we present the destination," adds François Gaillard. "Our main objective is to sell the destination to the business tourism market which makes up 75% of Lyon's tourism business".

Aware of the economic weight represented by this part of the market, the local suppliers have supported the large investment necessary over the last few years, from the expansion of Hall 66 into Eurexpo, enabling the surface area to increase to over 100 000 m², and the inauguration last June of the Amphithéâtre 3 000, the extension to the Cité Internationale's conference centre which required a collective investment of  151 million euros.  "Lyon has also given the Bureau des Congrès extra resources," continues François Gaillard. "In 2004, we set up a public/private partnership between Grand Lyon, Eurexpo and the conference centre.  It's the only one of its kind, and it has enabled us to increase our available budget to 900 000 €, of which 360 000 € is provided by Grand Lyon, 150 000 € by Eurexpo and the same amount again by the conference centre. This extra budget has enabled us to recruit two more sales executives, one of them based in London; to improve our stands at trade show so that they reflect the city's colours; and to establish a marketing campaign in both the specialist and the business press".  Lyon is now well placed to join the ranks of the major players in the market, and to position itself within reach of those conferences attracting over 1500 participants.

Thanks to this significant increase in budget, the Bureau des Congrès has also been able to create a business tourism analysis department which has just published its first paper in conjunction with KPMG. Entitled "Analysis of the flux of business tourism in Grand Lyon" it compares results between 2004 and 2005.

"Paris doesn't have the luxury of this type of department,"  says François Gaillard with pride.  "Its work is carried out on an annual basis and takes into account135 companies representing 190 000 m² of exhibition space. We have analysed the details of all the conferences and seminars for 30+ participants.  All of which has enabled us to note that in 2004 there were 16 000 and in 2005 almost 24 000, an increase of more than 41%, whilst the number of fairs and shows remains stable, about 80 events. We have also been able to make projections and to estimate the turnover generated by conference participants at 190 million euros in 2005 (1.283 million conference days) whilst turnover was 170.5 million euros in 2004. If the number of participants at shows and fairs is added to the number of conference days, the total is 2.416 million participants in 2005 over 2.318 million the year before.  In 2005 the average length of stay was 1.5 days for conferences and seminars and 3.5 days for fairs and shows".

François Gaillard has good reason for believing that "business tourism is really a self-reliant industry" and he is resolutely optimistic for the future: "With the opening of Amphithéâtre 3 000, we can look forward to some excellent years.  2007 is already looking good and we're beginning to work on 2008, 2009 and 2010.  Today we reckon we're no longer in competition with Lille or Toulouse but rather with Montreal, Barcelona, Vienna, Singapore, Paris and London.  The opening of a new 3* Concorde hotel with 180 rooms next November on the Cité Internationale site will be an added bonus.   Today Lyon is second only to Paris in terms of available facilities and we're also confident that our new slogan "I love events" will appeal to participants.   Our objective is to provide a warm welcome for business clients in all the restaurants and shops, whether that's a free drink or a welcome gift.  About 100 establishments have already signed up to the campaign!"

Bonus 1 : LSO International based in Lyon since 1997

Bonus 2 : Lyon, one of MCI’s two branches in France