news: LEISURE DAY
LeisurUp launches at packed Leisure Day Leisure took centre stage in Cannes yesterday as MAPIC dedicated a full day to its Leisure summit. And the breaking news was the launch of Reed MIDEM’s global B2B event — LeisurUp — which will focus on helping the leisure industry to create vibrant new experiences. Liz Morrell and Sarah Morris report
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NCREASINGLY, sophisticated leisure options are now “critically important” to retail developments in order to drive footfall and attract tenants, the MAPIC Leisure conference heard yesterday. Such offers benefit other tenants, extend catchment reach, replace dead anchors and, ultimately, increase rent roll, said Michael Collins and Yael Coifman, senior partners at Leisure Development Partners, in their international overview session.
Collins and Coifman highlighted research that shows a consistent growth in leisure spending across countries. “Retail spending in bricks and mortar is still predominantly strong, but leisure is slowly growing in importance,” Coifman said. “In almost all cases, retail spend per capita trickled along. On the other hand, we see a consistent growth in leisure spending across various European countries.” Coifman said developers need to MAPIC News 1 •
consider the “wow factor” and viability of such concepts in order to make money. “The wow factor is how much drawing power it can have. The more educational you get, the less people enjoy it.” Her example showed that destination theme parks, indoor waterparks and IP-branded family entertainment centres typically provide the biggest wow. And she said it was something that all developers should be pursuing. “The worst reason ever 5
• 13 November 2019
LEISURE ON THE UP NEXT year sees the launch by MAPIC organiser Reed MIDEM of a new international event dedicated to the leisure industry. The two-day LeisurUp event will take place on November 16-17, 2020 and will run across a 2,000 sq m exhibition zone. It will be located in its own venue close to the Palais des Festivals, with space to host 2,500 delegates from 80 countries. Francesco Pupillo, MAPIC’s deputy director, announced the new event during yesterday’s Leisure Day. Delegates from the world’s leisure destinations, including local and public authorities, will attend as well as operators, suppliers and service providers, Pupillo said.
