Nice And Proud
There are so many reasons to come to our beautiful city, there is the 300+ days a year of sun, turquoise sea, tempting cusine and oodles of culture, but is it a good place to invest? Key figures show that yes, Nice is a good place to invest.
2nd* Destination for tourism – After Paris with 52% foreign visitors
1st* Region for business travellers – 500,000 yearly for convention centers and 400 national and international events
1st* For infrastructures and transportation – International airport with flights to 100 destinations in 30 countries and for low-cost business travel with 3 millions seats sold yearly.International airport for business and private jets (Cannes-Mandelieu Airport)
1st* for regular airline route in France – (Paris-Nice) and regular helicopter route in Europe (Nice-Monaco)
1st* destination for cruises in Europe – 800,000 travelers yearly destination for yachting in Europe destination for golfing in France destination for gaming in France with 17 casinos
*in France after Paris – Source: Riviera Côte d’Azur Regional Tourism Board
Free Wi-Fi Hotspots Coming To Nice
Christian Estrosi, Mayor of Nice has announced that Nice will soon be offering selected free wi-fi hotspots for residents and tourists. The free connections will be in popular areas such as Place Garibaldi, Place Massena and some parks and beaches.
A connection date for these hotspots is yet to be announced but the Mayor has said that it won’t be long before the public are able to connect to their laptops and smartphones whilst soaking up the rays and sipping a glass of rose.
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New Look Revealed For Nice Thier Railway Station.
Take a sneak preview of the 60 million euro facelift for Nice’s Gare Thier.
The station sees seven million passengers pass through it each year to a variety of destinations throughout Europe and the country. It is the core of the Riviera’s rail network, providing reachable routes such as Italy, Monaco and Russia.
In order to encourage pedestrians to walk or take the tram located close to the station, a spacious square will replace the current car park.The renovation is set to improve passenger comfort as well as safety and improve transport services adding a direct, express link between Nice-Thiers and the tram stop located on avenue Jean Médecin.
Nice Airport Self-Service Plans
Nice Côte d’Azur Airport are seeking to extend services to passengers, which goes beyond the classic self-service platform allowing credit card payment on check-in kiosks.
Deployed last fall at Nice Côte d’Azur Airport Terminal 2 in Zone C (the area dedicated to Air France, KLM, Alitalia and Tarom) 14 new IER self check-in kiosks were introduced, these allowed passengers a baggage tag printer, so as to allow self tagging of the baggage by the passenger.
Jean-Pierre Torres, head of IT division of Nice Airport said “The strategy of Nice Côte d’Azur Airport has always been to provide the best tools to the airlines for their operations. The implementation of this kiosk with chip and pin payment module is an anticipation of a future process. “If Air France and KLM are the first airlines to start this kind of process at Nice, all airlines are going to integrate on-line payment, self tagging and certainly self bag drop in their passenger process”
Nice Airport experienced an important increase of traffic in 2011 and the implementation of the kiosks will help to accommodate future growth for the ultimate convenience of its passengers.
New Terminal 3 announced for Nice airport
Nice Côte d’Azur airport has announced plans to build a third terminal in order to cut down passenger waiting times and aid flight turn-arounds. Due to open in 2019, the airport says the major works will cost 80 million Euros and will cover over 30,000 square metres. The new terminal will provide access for a further four million passengers each year.
Photo- LaFrance
Speaking in January about the new terminal, the President of the Société des Aéroports de la Côte d’Azur, Hervé de Place, said “The aim of T3 is to simplify the existing airport and target overcrowding. Low-cost flights are going to particularly benefit, but the same high quality service will exist.” There are also plans to add a pre-boarding room for gathering passengers before boarding and shuttle buses to the airplanes.
EasyJet and Air France are said to be the two largest airlines involved in the airport’s expansion, with added airlines bringing more flight paths to the Riviera. Air France is currently re-examining its prices, to compete with cheaper flight operators, in order to be a part of the new Terminal 3 developments.
Breaking a personal record on the July 30, 2011, Nice airport welcomed 43,762 passengers in one day. In 2010, 9,603,014 passengers travelled through the airport, and air traffic increased by 8.5% bringing the passenger numbers to 10,422,073 for 2011. A further expected rise in passengers is set to increase in 2016 by 20%, taking the yearly amount of passengers to 12.5 million.
Works are due to begin in 2016 and are expected to be finished in 2019.
Nice’s mayor, Christian Estrosi, has big plans for the capital of the Riviera in the coming five years. The Old Town will be getting a facelift in the form of a renovated Place Pierre Gautier next to the Cours Saleya. Better still; another new feature is the roof terrace that will be constructed on top of the historic Ponchette houses. The finished product will be a raised green walking stretching along the Promende des Anglais where visitors can take a stroll, enjoying views of the Mediterranean on one side and the architecture of the Old Town on the other.
In 2016 Line 2 of Nice’s successful 
tramway system will be completed.The route will connect the airport to Place Massena, before slipping underground to Nice Port and up to the city’s northern suburbs, allowing passengers to hop off a plane and into town in around 15 minutes. The council’s magic wand will also be passed over the old Gare du Sud in the Libération area (which will host new stores and a media centre).
And finally, in 2025, a new TGV high-speed train line will link Nice with Marseille in just over an hour. The final journey from the capital of the Riviera direct to Paris will be just under four hours.