A portrait of… Denis Zanon, the ECM Treasurer
Denis Zanon worked over a 24 year period for tourist organisations situated in the French Alps, working in places such as Chamonix, Annecy, and Courchevel. A specialist in business tourism, he moved south to the Côte d’Azur to become the new General Manager of Nice Tourisme et Congrès in July 2008. Treasurer of ECM since October 2010, Denis Zanon now reveals something of himself.
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What motivated you to join the ECM Board and become its Treasurer?
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Throughout my career I have been co-ordinating the parts played by different actors of the tourism industry in order to increase the individual performance. Joining the Board and being able to share personal knowledge and experience with all my colleagues from all over Europe is a very rewarding part of this job. Becoming Treasurer is just a way to get more involved and demonstrate my commitment. And it doesn’t consume too much time, as the Head Office team in Dijon does a great job with the accounting. I will do my best to support them in the task.
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For me Nice as a city is…
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A great compromise! This city has everything we might wish to dream of: incredible climate, history, patrimony, culture, food… The city is so rich! It’s easy to travel thanks to the airport (second international airport in France after Paris). Then, we have the sea and the skiing is only one hour’s driving from the city centre. We have all this under a world renowned light that inspired some of the most famous painters in the world.
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It’s a great place to promote, which means an exciting job for me to do to the best of my abilities!
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The project at work I am focusing on at the moment:
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Actually two things: the Carnival from February 17 to March 8, 127 years, 1 million visitors, and 7 M€ budget, quite an event… We are in charge of it, and it’s a massive amount of work. Second, our new websites, and the creation of all the associated business processes and data bases. All of this should dramatically improve our web presence and online capabilities…
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My favourite…book, activity…
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I’ve been racing motorcycles for more than 30 years, and I like drawing, sports, skiing, squash, music, movies, travelling, my job, and of course, most importantly : my five-year-old son Marius.
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A place I would most like to visit (other than Nice, of course)…
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Luckily I have travelled extensively over the last 20 years, mostly professionally, but I still have two big misses: Argentina and Namibia. And I have to confess that I still have a few places in France to discover…
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A successful destination in the world of tourism is one which …
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Has the right combination. What I mean by this is getting the right balance between the economic development which comes thanks to tourism – good income for the locals, creating employment – without this being too intrusive or without it polluting the place. Most of the major urban destinations are close to achieving this goal and some of them already have. It needs a clear vision and strategy, as well as strong governance in order to stay in the rails and succeed. Not easy!
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If I could change one thing in the world, I would…
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Find a way to eradicate the concept of money, and reconsider the whole ideas of religions and frontiers… and maybe slow the whole thing down…just to get back to the ‘real time’ of thinking on what to do and what to say to reach serenity.
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