Focus on France Ian Sparks reports from Paris

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Focus on... France

Ian Sparks reports from Paris on a yachting slump in the French Riviera.

France’s luxury yachting industry has suffered a major downturn in revenue this year as thrifty millionaires shun the Riviera to moor their vessels in cheaper and less glamorous resorts.

The cost of marine diesel, crew and mooring charges in the south of France are driving the world’s wealthiest people away to rival ports around the Mediterranean – especially Spain, Italy and Greece.

The port of St Tropez has suffered a 30 per cent slump in income from berthing fees compared to 2016, while Antibes has lost 25 per cent of its revenue, and the less glamorous port of Toulon has lost 40 per cent. Monaco Maritime boatyard also recently lost a lucrative contract for a 152metre mega-yacht to a Spanish rival.

This means that hundreds of businesses servicing the yachting industry, including crew agencies, yacht repair and painting firms and catering and fuel suppliers, could also be hit by the exodus of the tycoons.

The high costs on the Riviera are blamed on France’s strict enforcement of EU regulations on the sale price of diesel, and the high French taxes and social contributions introduced in March meaning that employers now need to pay for crew members.

Now three leading Riviera politicians, regional president Renaud Muselier, Nice mayor Christian Estrosi and Toulon mayor Hubert Falco have written an open letter to President Emmanuel Macron pleading for a loosening of the regulations.

It said: “The gravity of the economic situation of the yachting sector in the Provence-Alps-Riviera region makes it necessary for us to appeal for your direct intervention. Refuelling a 42-metre yacht in Italy, instead of France, gives a saving of nearly €21,000 a week because of the difference in tax, while the additional cost of maintaining a seven-person crew in France is €300,000 a year.

“As a result, hardly any French sailors are now being hired to crew yachts and sales by the four largest marine fuel vendors have fallen by 50 per cent this summer. This is because the European Union is allowing Italy and Spain to undercut the Côte d’Azur, and we need an immediate harmonisation of tax and social regulations at the European level.”

And Franck Dosne, manager of the Port Vauban yachting marina in Antibes, added: “The fall in visits can easily be seen simply by looking at a map showing where yachts are berthed in the western Mediterranean. National insurance, health and other compulsory contributions which boat owners pay for crew members has increased from 15 to 55 per cent of their wages.”

A spokesman for Mr Macron said the president would be inviting representatives of the yachting industry to Paris to discuss their concerns in the coming weeks.

unhealthy image

Also in France this summer, the equally glamorous fashion industry was hit with tough new rules banning super-skinny models from catwalk shows and advertising in a bid to end the ‘glorification of anorexia’.

Under the new law, models will now need a doctor’s certificate to prove they are healthy before being allowed to work in the fashion industry. The new rules also state that from October this year, magazines that use Photoshop to change a model’s shape must label their photos as ‘re-touched’. Fashion agencies and models will now face fines of up to £60,000 for using underweight girls in advertising, promotions or on the catwalk.

French health minister Marisol Touraine said on Friday: “Exposing young people to normative and non-realistic images of the body leads to a sense of self-depreciation and poor self-esteem that can impact health behaviours. So this law aims to reduce the promotion of inaccessible beauty ideals and to prevent anorexia in young people.”

There are approximately 40,000 people in France suffering from anorexia, around 90 per cent of whom are adolescents, according to the latest health ministry figures.

An earlier draft of the bill triggered protests in the fashion industry last year by proposing that a minimum body mass index – a measure of body fat based on height and weight – be imposed for models. But MPs have now agreed to let doctors decide whether a model is too thin by taking into account their age, gender and body shape.

Medical certificates must now state that a model’s health ‘has been assessed in particular in terms of body mass index and is compatible with the practice of the modelling profession’.

The new health reforms will also crack down on so-called ‘pro-anorexia’ websites that ‘incite extreme thinness’ by encouraging people to diet. It will now become illegal in France to ‘provoke a person to seek excessive weight loss by encouraging prolonged nutritional deprivation that could lead to health risks or death’.

France’s National Union of Modelling Agencies has complained that the law on models will affect the competitiveness of the French fashion industry. But it is backed by veteran Italian designer Giorgio Armani, who said in 2013 that the fashion industry had a duty to ‘work together against anorexia’. He added: “The industry has to recognise the link between its preference for abnormally thin models and the growth in eating disorders among young women.” Also under the sweeping health reforms, France hopes to tackle child obesity by banning restaurants from offering unlimited fizzy drinks for a fixed price, and making water freely available in all bars and restaurants. A French health ministry spokesman said: “It is clearly unhealthy to be either too fat or too thin, and we are aiming to legislate for both.” n