Vatel, the world’s leading business school group for the hospitality and tourism management sector, is to open a new school in the south of France.
On Friday 1st September, longtime Cannes Mayor David Lisnard unveiled plans for the opening of a brand-new hospitality school and training centre in the west of Cannes. The future establishment will be part of the internationally renowned and award-winning Vatel Group network.
Set to open in time for the 2026/27 academic year, the Vatel Academy will eventually welcome 1,000 students. Two Masters will be on offer – Events Management and Strategic Luxury Management – in addition to courses in the realms of cookery and hospitality.
The school will cover 18,000m2 and be equipped with a top-of-the-range teaching kitchen and pastry facilities. There will also be a 50-room training hotel, a restaurant and food court, and various classroom settings as well as student accommodation of at least 319 rooms to allow for on-campus living for a portion of the intake. Around 100 permanent jobs, from teaching posts to maintenance roles, will be created.
BIGGER PICTURE
The last few years have seen considerable developments and investments made in the Cannes-La Bocca area of the city, including a €22 million rebrand and renovation of its seafront and a €78 million injection into the local town centre.
Mayor Lisnard has spoken frequently of his desire to establish Cannes as a major “university city”; a project that is already well underway following the 2021 opening of the Georges Méliès University for the applied arts, animated images, special effects and video games sectors.
“What pride [I feel] to welcome the prestigious Vatel hotel school, which has been training future hotel executives and managers for 40 years,” he said at a press conference for this latest Vatel development. “In less than two years, Cannes has established itself as a student city that counts in the landscape of French academia. The establishment of a Vatel Group school here also confirms the global influence of our city in the professions of events, tourism, and the hotel and catering industry.”
The French Vatel Group began in Paris in 1981, but has grown to reach all four corners of the world. Today, the group operates 55 schools in 31 different countries and currently educates 9,000 students. Over the years, some 39,000 alumni have passed through the doors of Vatel’s various establishments.
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Photo credit: Mairie de Cannes