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  Geneva : international and cultural city ?

Mr. François BRYAND - General Director of Geneva Tourism, Switzerland

 

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Mr. President,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

As a prelude, I wish to express here a tourism official’s satisfaction being able, in the context of this 4th Summits of Tourism, to take the time to reflect on his own sector of activities. These interludes, unfortunately too rare, are indeed precious. They permit us to slow down in our daily occupations, and they force us to take this necessary step back from our marketing concepts, strategies and other theories that tend to make us forget that tourism is not an ordinary consumer product and that its connections, especially with the quality of a site, its population and its culture, are essential. These reflections are even more important because tourism, despite its current slowdown, nonetheless remains the most significant economic sector on a worldwide scale, and its ability to rapidly surmount crises should make it recover an exponential growth whose socio-economic consequences will distinctly mark this beginning for the 21st century.

Regarding Geneva’s tourism and the theme taken up this year, this last idea interests us particularly insofar as it tends to prove, if need be, that tourism exists beyond idyllic landscapes and golden beaches and that each region, and especially cities, conceals a historical and cultural patrimony that is available to be integrated into its tourism offerings.

Even if in Europe the number of tourists travelling exclusively for cultural reasons is estimated to be a small share, this proportion is increasing appreciably if one acknowledges the number of visitors who are combining their business trips with a visit to a cultural site. This reality already shows the complementary nature of the two approaches that are obliged to co-exist.

For several years, Geneva Tourism has striven to reveal the multiple facets of an extremely rich and diversified region. Beyond the Jet d’Eau, the Flower Clock, and the double humanitarian and international vocation that no one would deny, the image of Geneva must be continuously supplemented. Indeed, let us not forget that Geneva was and still remains the clock-making capital; the cradle of Protestantism; a finance centre; a place for trade fairs and exhibitions; a centre of commerce, history and culture; and even a mecca for gastronomy and the hotelier tradition. Geneva can and must assert a strong identity by harmoniously uniting its local roots and its openness to the world.

This union, however, wasn’t invented yesterday. Despite the merit extended for more than 100 years by a deserving tourism office, it is necessary to bow to the evidence that Geneva’s entry onto the historical scene originally occurred centuries earlier. Without going all the way back to our first tourist, from Julius Caesar to Calvin, passing by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Voltaire and Henri Dunant, Geneva must have emerged from the shadows through the intervention of number of exceptional men. Today’s tourist-oriented and international Geneva then draws on its roots in a rich historical and cultural patrimony. In this way we conclude that our modern tourism could never substitute itself completely for what makes up its substance, to wit : a Geneva obviously situated in an extremely privileged natural site, and especially a Geneva that is the heir of past centuries, tolerant, and open to the world, to ideas and to exchanges.

Indeed, how should it be explained that Geneva, whose role could have been limited to that of a simple regional metropolis, today occupies a privileged position among the field of world capitals ?

Certainly the presence on its soil of the majority of large governmental organisations, which for Geneva means often being the meeting place for visitors from around the world, has played a decisive role in its tourism development. But vital as that may be, this state of affairs does not explain everything. A series of earlier events has played an equally determining role in the influx of talents and specialists to Geneva. From Roman imperialism up to our era through the periods of royalty, episcopal feudalism, the Reformation and later the Romantic movements and the French occupation, Geneva was the de facto field for all the experiences that, in certain respects, would represent the foundations for a cultural tourism.

By thus ceding Geneva’s world fame to the men without whom our town would have never known the destiny that we know it for, the question today is one of knowing whether or not our republic is in a position to judiciously combine this rich historic and cultural patrimony with its calling, not to say its label, as an international city. In other words, are culture and business tourism antinomic to Geneva?

We are, of course, quite persuaded at this stage that, far from contradicting each other, these two worlds possess all the features in order to get along. Even if our city is not truly considered as a cultural destination in its own right, it can occasionally offer a number of rewarding cultural opportunities.

Geneva Tourism’s policy in this regard is perfectly clear. We are convinced that a tourism-cultural offering that complements the numerous assets of our city represents an appreciation in value likely to respond to the expectations of our visitors, whatever their primary incentive for the trip. In fact, our guests regularly seek facilities or cultural programmes that we are endeavouring to incorporate systematically in our offering. Moreover, cultural information, the development of our patrimony, and the organisation and the support for diverse events undertaken over several years testify to our willpower in this matter. To cite just one non-exhaustive example, we distribute all the cultural media published by our office and by the city of Geneva, such as the list of numerous museums, discoveries, walks in the old city, theme visits, and even the collection of walking tours.

I should note here that from now until the end of the year, we will publish a very interesting work entitled “Famous Characters”, which will retrace the life of 36 men and women who as a common denominator lived in Geneva and left a lasting impression in the collective memory by enriching the cultural, scientific and economic life of this city. Included is Jean-Jacques Rousseau, whose museum, located on the site of his birthplace, has just been opened this summer with the support of Geneva Tourism.

In addition, to commemorate the 100th birthday of the Nobel Peace Prize, which in 1901 was given to Henri Dunant, our office has also collaborated with the association “Geneva, a Place for Peace”, and has published three itineraries which review the different sites and buildings in which the peacemakers worked. We also support the guides association of Geneva, who never fail to offer products adapted to current topics, such as the one designed this year for the 400th anniversary of the Escalade, or the one in connection with the opening of the new Patek Philippe Museum.

In other respects, Geneva Tourism, concerned with stimulating our city, organises or supports events of a cultural and tourism character. This year, in a concept entitled “Lighting up Geneva”, with the support from the city and canton of Geneva, we want to develop a comprehensive tourism offering, bringing together all of the professionals, attractions and existing events like the Christmas Tree Festival, the ice-skating rink, and the Christmas market, all recently opened. Thanks to this concept, we also want to create in the medium term an illumination programme for the natural and built patrimony of Geneva.

Once again, let us cite our contribution to the events organised by the city and canton of Geneva, like Patrimony Day, the Music Festival, La Fureur de lire or even the Science Night. All of these events, spectacles, concerts, theatre and exhibitions taking place in Geneva are included each week in the “Geneva Agenda”, created by our office and distributed free of charge to residents and foreign visitors.

In another domain, the various offerings for regional excursions can also represent an enriching alternative for international visitors sensitive to the beauty of our natural environment. Obviously Mont-Blanc, but also Gruyère or the Château de Chillon, are examples of neighbouring sites that are likely to interest our conference participants craving pure air or history.

Finally, Geneva Tourism organises the Festivals of Geneva, which remain the largest tourism event in Switzerland—a multicultural festival mixing techno and popular dance music with a musical fireworks show. Permanent fixtures of the Geneva summer, these festivities encourage encounters and plunge both Genevans and foreign visitors into an atmosphere of friendly, artistic and playful jubilation. By attracting 1.5 million people each year, they are also framed in a perspective of external communication and contribute greatly to the evolution of our tourism image.

Ladies and Gentlemen, these multiple examples prove that cultural offerings are alive and well in Geneva. Claiming the contrary would demonstrate blind bad faith.

Once again, in regard to this rich and diversified offering, it seems opportune to evaluate Geneva’s tourism potential. Each day, our city of 200,000 inhabitants has the privilege of accommodating nearly 10,000 visitors from more than 100 different countries. For a day trip or a short stay, the criteria of choice and the motivation of our guests remain quite obviously varied, but the majority of them declare themselves “in love” with Geneva and satisfied with the services received.

Now the question is how to know whether our cultural offering is accessible to all, and particularly to tourists passing through. Once again, analysing the attendance of cultural sites seems to demonstrate the attractiveness of the offering. Recalling in passing that the permanent exhibitions of our municipal museums are free (which represents an undeniable promotional advantage but is perhaps still badly exploited), in one year 350,000 visitors attended the Museums of Art and History, 220,000 attended our natural history museum, and again 80,000 attended a 4-month long exhibition entitled “Mexico: Land of Gods” several years ago. It should be added that the concerts of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande as well as the shows at the Grand Théâtre are practically sold out for each performance.

However, without possessing a detailed analysis, we estimate that the proportion of tourists in these statistics remains unfortunately low. At most, we can assert that the large international community of Geneva, who with their visiting friends and family generates a significant share of our tourism, certainly represents, along with the Genevans, the potential clients for our cultural spectacles.

So if Geneva possesses a rich cultural patrimony, an extremely diversified offering which attracts millions of visitors to its hotels, why doesn’t it truly have the tourism image of a cultural city?

The answer to this question becomes evident in several ways.

First of all, it is appropriate here to remember that the cultural policy of our city belongs entirely to Geneva’s department of cultural affairs, while tourism development is the responsibility of our private tourism office. Far from wanting to oppose anyone, this reminder is important insofar as if one admits, as was alluded to earlier, that culture should make up an integral part of the tourism offering, it is appropriate to verify that the policies led on both sides, for want of being perfectly coherent, are compatible—indeed, complementary.

The cultural affairs department of our city, which employs around 1000 people and manages a budget of 180 million Francs, has as its principal mission the conservation of the cultural patrimony, the buildings and the collections that our city possesses.

This department is carrying out a very large scientific project of research and upgrading of the existing patrimony, all while developing new projects. Furthermore, lacking a truly international promotion, they wish to diversify the cultural, classical, contemporary and alternative offerings and address themselves mainly to the largest possible regional audience, in a spirit of democratising culture. To do this, a large share of their budget is dedicated to their operation and to the preservation of the patrimony, while a third is distributed as subsidies and a small amount of funds are allocated to promoting the cultural offering.

Without passing judgment, and relatively speaking, it is interesting to compare this policy with that of a cultural centre located in a smaller population base, and which, in an almost opposite approach, would not have to be preoccupied with the preservation of its patrimony and would develop only key projects for the general public, by dedicating the main part of its budget to acquiring exhibitions and promoting them internationally. In our region, this brings to mind the Pierre Gianadda Foundation, which is for many a benchmark in the area of tourism-cultural offerings.

You will have understood that the marketing approach of a tourism office falls more along the lines of this last example, when even we absolutely admit that the mission of a cultural department of a city like Geneva greatly exceeds the case of operating a simple museum and that such an approach can refer solely to tourism marketing criteria.

Another obstacle to a more tourism-related development of culture in Geneva seems to be tied to actual infrastructure. Without going over the rejected project of the new ethnography museum, it seems that our city is sometimes a bit too cramped to expose its treasures under good conditions, and it does not possess a concert hall with as high a reputation as its symphonic orchestra, for example. Without wanting to sow discontent, when we contemplate building a congress centre, shouldn’t we consider creating a genuine cultural centre? We can indeed dream of better days when our wharves could be beautified and, without blushing, resemble those of Sydney, possessing an annual cultural event with an international reputation to boot.

However, in terms of infrastructure, I would not want to continue without remarking on the extraordinary rehabilitation of the Forces Motrices factory. This beautiful example of re-allocating industrial space to a culture site is not unique to Geneva. In fact, we could again cite the former gold factory that became “L’Usine”, or again the disused workshops of the Société des Instruments de Physique (SIP) that were transformed into the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art. Of course we can only salute this desire to combine the renovation of a site and an act of preserving the patrimony on the one hand, and the encouragement of the formation of cultural activities on the other hand.

Recalling these few reflections and constraints, we can assert in conclusion that our image as an international city, a depository of a long welcoming tradition, allied with the tremendous cultural patrimony of our city, represents in certain regards an attractive and perfectly complementary offering. To reinforce this, it is appropriate, however, to again break certain taboos and especially to admit, when faced with the success achieved by the music festivals and other large painting exhibitions, that culture, whether or not purists like it, must also appeal to the largest audience before being reserved for an elite. This approach rests quite obviously on the overlapping of two perfectly compatible worlds and especially on a close collaboration between tourism professionals and culture officials.

We are thus convinced that the development of one will not go forward without the other and that the cultural image of Geneva will benefit from the development of our tourism.

Finally, I hope that some of our Haut-Savoyard and Savoyard friends will forgive me; I cannot finish my remarks, on the 400th anniversary to the day of the Escalade battle, without calling forth the memory of Mère Royaume. This emblematic woman of Geneva, who in a heroic gesture repulsed the Duke of Savoy’s troops that infamous night of December 11-12, 1602, allows me to recall not only that this historic evocation attracts and delights thousands of visitors in our old city each year for four centuries now, but also that it considerably improved the quality of our welcome to tourists.

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