Moving on, what was noticeable this year was a very discernible change of positioning from many of the major players. Diageo, for example, went from a fairly closed environment in the main Palais to a far more open and transparent space on the beach. Their 5 o’clock panel sessions were widely acclaimed. Equally, the quality and content of the presentations from key industry players (I couldn’t attend all), as well as their informal gatherings, were outstanding. Excellent examples here are Pernod Ricard, L’Oréal, William Grant, Brown-Forman, Nestlé and Mondelez.
And it was good to see a healthy selection of new brands trying to make a space and take a place in the travel retail world.
I won’t develop my comments from my previous blog a few weeks back on the awards (are they meaningless?). All I would say is that those handed out across the 3 events last week combine the usual annual mix of some worthy winners as well as some real oddities.
So, a good year overall and congratulations to TFWA. But, sadly, some things don’t really change. One of them is the local approach of the restaurants – in terms of pricing and attitude. You would think that COVID would have somewhat mellowed their approach to customer service. Not at all. We all know that the various Palais festivals and their delegates represent some 70% of the income for Cannes. And the restaurants know that the shows and the delegates will keep on coming back. COVID hurt many, but the greed of some restaurants to play catch up was there for all to see. In Le Suquet, for example, one decently average restaurant charged 98 euros for a steak – well over a 100% increase from 2021. With the lowest inflation rate currently in Europe at 6% in France (it’s over 80% in Turkey at time of writing), how can such an increase be justified? Of course you can walk away, but the price hikes this year were everywhere to be seen. Happily there are still some gems to be found. La Brouette de Grand Mère, located just off the Rue D’Antibes, is one. Definitely worth a visit.
I actually stayed in Cap D’Antibes this year. I did not want to pay 230 euros for a 2 star hotel. The Carlton being closed (no, I have never stayed there) definitely had a knock on effect with demand for all the other hotels. Yet, door to door it took me just 28 minutes and it was well worth the change.
And back to service. In fairness, the attitude from French staff at restaurants in Cannes is closely mirrored in other Mediterranean countries. But the French excel and seem to have developed their version of customer service into an art form.There is always one story worth telling, so here it is.