MIPIM reflections.

Every year during MIPIM week in Cannes, a small economic miracle takes place.

If you’ve been to MIPIM, you’ll know exactly what I mean.

A modest €90 hotel room suddenly costs €450.

Taxi from Nice Côte d’Azur Airport to Cannes: about €100 one way.

Mandatory two- or three-night hotel blocks.

And reservations made months in advance if you want to stay anywhere near the Palais des Festivals.

And that’s before even mentioning the famous MIPIM pass — the small sesame required to enter the Palais… and its orbit.

At MIPIM, your badge sometimes speaks before you do.

All in all, several thousand euros for a few days in Cannes .

VAT included or excluded — I’ve honestly lost track.

For a fair that once welcomed 35,000 participants and now gathers roughly 20,000 — which remains quite enormous, almost 30% of the year-round population of Cannes, concentrated in a very small area over five days.

And let’s be honest: a fair share of attendees  seem to be on a corporate outing — HR teams, communications, accounting… plus the inevitable cohort of young asset managers rewarded for a good year.

We’re not that far from overtourism.

Of course, there is business too.

MIPIM remains the perfect opportunity to meet our friends from Paris — and from the rest of the world — all conveniently gathered in Cannes.

In many ways, networking may well be the real acme of MIPIM.

Those who take full advantage of the week– contracts, relationships, ideas – are the ones who planned their week before boarding the plane.

MIPIM is also the ideal opportunity to:

    •    Discuss our latest development projects and off-market opportunities for the sale or acquisition of hotels under mandates,

    •    Strengthen or develop partnerships with key players in the sector.

This year there is even a new phenomenon — perhaps for the first time.

On LinkedIn, people proudly posting:

Quite a paradox.

For years, not being there was simply unimaginable.

This raises the sempiternal question:

could Barcelona — one extra hour of flight, sunshine included, and better tapas — absorb the crowds just as well?

Just kidding.

After more than 20 years attending MIPIM, I’ve had my share of memorable moments:

sleeping on a renovated three-masted ship moored on the Jetée Albert-Édouard right next to the Palais des Festivals,

lunch on the Lérins Islands,

or dinner in the gastronomic village of Mougins.

Cannes, the Croisette, the Côte d'Azur, the March sunshine, the beginning of spring... the sea 

It’s France.

And somehow, that still makes it better.

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