As a relatively new yet leading brand in altitude urban tourism, Magnicity has put together a photo exhibition that will show the awakening of some of our most popular cities following the Coronavirus lockdown. The exhibition is scheduled to open in July.
The French tourism group M56, with four observatory sites already established, launched its new urban altitude tourism brand Magnicity in the spring of 2020.
Since its creation in 1974, the group has obtained observatories in Europe with Paris Montparnasse and the TV Tower in Berlin and in the United States with 360 Chicago and One Liberty Philadelphia. The group has received more than 3.5 million visitors each year, although this year will see much lower numbers due to the COVID-19 crisis. In March 2020, the group acquired a new iconic site: the Euromast in Rotterdam.
WATCH our Facebook live interview with Muriel Lemesre, marketing manager of Magnicity.
It was in October 2018, however, when Alexia Vettier arrived in the company, that the new brand would emerge. She noticed how successful each observatory was individually, being managed in different ways, and thought to develop the design brand Magnicity as a way to harmonize the experience for guests.
The idea behind Magnicity is to give the experience of each city a similar approach, including the style of visits, events and welcoming while embracing the differences between them so that the discovery of the city remains authentic.
In the heart of iconic cities, Magnicity sites welcome visitors at altitude and allow them to live the experience of a breathtaking 360 ° panorama and to discover the city, through its multiple dimensions: its architecture, its history, its gastronomy, its culture and around an event program that evolves throughout the year. Magnicity thus actively contributes to the tourist, cultural and heritage influence of cities.
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The creation of Magnicity was based on several observations: the booming urban tourism with cities representing nearly 50% of tourist travel destinations in 2019 and the evolving urban landscape with the construction of higher and higher towers.
The company claims that until having launched Magnicity, there was no player specializing in high-altitude urban tourism.
“It is separate tourism which requires very specific know-how, expertise and skills.” the company stated in a press release “In particular, in terms of flow management and public safety in very tall buildings.”
Like all players in tourism in France and around the world, Magnicity and its 5 sites are facing the dramatic economic consequences of the coronavirus health crisis.
“Launching a new brand in the midst of the COVID-9 crisis is a challenge,” stated Alexia Vettier, CEO of Magnicity, “but it is also an opportunity for Magnicity to automatically integrate the social and environmental challenges revealed by the crisis and to contribute actively moving from volume urban tourism to urban tourism that favors value.”
For the brand, this unprecedented crisis requires reinventing a model of tourism and more precisely of urban tourism. Indeed, cities have a role to play in the world of tomorrow, after the COVID-19 crisis, to help the transition to a more united model, resilient to climate and ecological risks, sustainable and protective of citizens and biodiversity. Magnicity intends to participate in these changes and wants to actively reflect on this with local institutions and organizations.
As of June 21, the Paris location has officially reopened and, come the beginning of July, a photo exhibition on the rooftop called “New Beginnings” will show the five cities with Magnicity observatories during lockdown. All five locations will exhibit photos of its city during lockdown, but the Paris location will show all five and will remain available to the public until the end of the year.
Work by more than 20 professional photographers based in Europe and the United States, the exhibition will illustrate the “awakening” of cities after this unprecedented pause, a resolutely optimistic and unifying awakening. It will be an opportunity for the brand to reaffirm its vocation: to magnify the personality of each city to make it discover in a new light.
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