LA TRIBUNE – Corsica is emerging from a sluggish tourist season. The main economic engine is running out of fuel. Are you worried?
ALEX VINCIGUERRA – No not yet. We have to wait until the season ends to evaluate it objectively. The policy of the Corsican Tourism Agency, intelligent from my point of view, which consists of distributing attendance over the seasonal wings, seems to be bearing fruit. Hotels in September have good booking rates likely to continue until the end of October. It is at this time that a precise assessment of the season can be drawn up. July was not good, August a little better, but I am convinced that over the year as a whole, the level of attendance will be higher than last year.
Doesn’t this attendance mainly benefit non-commercial accommodation (Airbnb type), which hoteliers constantly denounce?
Attendance is one thing, income is another. It is indisputable, in fact, that the classic tourist sector – hotels, bars, restaurants – is upset by the tenfold increase in furnished rental accommodation and concierge services which represent a volume of beds declared at least equal to that of commercial beds with fewer charges and constraints. Furthermore, more than two-thirds of them are owned by economic agents who do not live in Corsica and, therefore, the island does not benefit from the production of this added value. Their identification is the responsibility of the State services and despite our repeated requests, we have not had access to this data. Only the municipalities can decide, if necessary, on much higher taxation of furnished tourist accommodation.
Likewise, the construction industry, in clear decline, is relying on public procurement. Is the Corsican Community able to take on its share of commitments?
A dynamic analysis of public procurement reveals that the growth in construction turnover in Corsica between 2015 and 2023 was the most significant of all French regions. But we have entered a cycle of brutal decline due to the deterioration of public finances, itself aggravated by a drop in building permits which affects the entire country. Also, for several months, we have been working with the Corsican Building Federations on a reorientation towards renovation in general and energy in particular because there are 42,000 individual houses and 57,000 collective housing which must be renovated in Corsica. Due to its scale, the renovation program that we are proposing constitutes an unprecedented recovery plan for the building sector. Which implies having certified companies, and there are still too few here. This guideline to which we must commit is likely to cushion the crisis but we must be lucid, the construction industry will not soon return to the improvement of past years.
This will be even less so with the anti-concrete dike that the ZAN law sets up with the prospect of zero artificialization of soils in 2050, that is to say tomorrow…
In Corsica, the ZAN law is joined by other regulatory padlocks, the Mountain law, the Coastal law – which combine their constraints for many municipalities – the Padduc, the sustainable development and development plan, which protects our sites and sanctifies agricultural areas. But there is also the political will to significantly limit the areas to be subdivided. We must focus primarily on collective housing and renovation.
In this complicated context, what is ADEC’s roadmap?
Since 2021, we have redirected our aid towards the production of goods and services. We no longer support the pizzeria which opens for three months in the summer but the agri-food sector, the digital sector, the nautical sector, the silver economy, as well as all the production sectors including the less traditional ones such as audiovisual.
Don’t companies in these sectors also suffer from the structural pitfall of additional costs attributable to transport?
Here we enter directly into two issues: proven additional costs and taxation. The sustainable reassessment of the Territorial Continuity envelope would reduce additional costs linked to transport. Refusing to index it since 2009 to inflation, the rise in fuel prices and, more generally, to the restructuring of transport, is very damaging. It is 187 million euros per year, 40 million euros more are needed, which the State had agreed to in 2021 and 2022. At the same time, it is necessary to make the organization of transport more efficient, in particular that of the passengers. The flow purchasing system from air operators will contribute to this, it will make it possible to transport visitors from economically strong countries to Corsica throughout the year and to ensure the sustainability of commercial accommodation and employment.
Does the freezing of the autonomy process, which was to provide Corsica with a tailor-made fiscal and social status, compromise the hope of a new economic model?
Obviously. The economic model that we want to build is based on a strong and intangible principle: the reduction of dependencies and it involves advantageous taxation for everything produced in Corsica. However today, we import almost all of what we consume and only specific production taxes could gradually rebalance things. For its part, the State must put Corsica on an equal footing with other regions. I am thinking in particular of the repayment of VAT. Since 2018 and the advent of the Single Community, only 21% of VAT has been paid to us compared to 50% for all other territories.
How can we explain that 96% of the food consumed on the island is imported while barely a third of the 100,000 hectares of agricultural land is exploited?
Agriculture is faced with the harsh reality of the market. The flourishing production of the Eastern Plain no longer resists European or African competition. A fiscal prerogative that would grant us the ability to tax less on the vegetables and fruits that we could grow, and of better quality, would get us out of the impasse and promote short circuits that are particularly beneficial for an island.
Despite the political hiatus, a difficult economic situation and the handicap of insularity, are you confident in the future?
Yes, I am. Corsica, in terms of innovation, green economy and blue economy, has real potential. An island of 350,000 inhabitants which welcomes 5,000 students and opens schools of engineering, construction and energy, agri-food, robotics and artificial intelligence, is in a dynamic that other regions could envy. If it obtains a suitable research-innovation tax credit, it can attract brains and capital. Researchers can work all over the world, but they will favor a place that respects nature and offers a better quality of life. Corsica has a strong power of attraction. Too bad the state keeps her at bay. Not a single one of the 7,000 innovative companies that joined the “Choose France” program, directly supported by Emmanuel Macron, has set up there. Also, we must develop territorial marketing which ideally positions Corsica within the scope of tomorrow’s economy.
Should we not prioritize consolidating the economic fabric as it exists today?
We are working to do both at the same time. Tourism? We are on the verge of succeeding in spreading out the season. Construction? We are correcting the normal reversal of the cycle by promoting the reconversion of businesses for renovation. I also know that political and fiscal autonomy will reduce dependencies. The coverage of the territory in very high speed, the human and natural resources, the aptitude for creativity and resilience, forge a conviction if not a certainty: Corsica is ready to attract investors from the economy of tomorrow , ecological, digital and technological.
