Cirque du Soleil in the saddle well despite the recession

Even if the recession toss markets and consumers around the world, Cirque du Soleil has not lost his balance and difficult year through this rather calmly. But caution is still required: Cirque extended its freeze on wages in the second half of the year.

It really does not measure loss, supports the spokesman for the Cirque, Renée-Claude Ménard. But what we try to do is to monitor and control what happens. "

In Las Vegas, where Cirque presents six productions, the occupancy rate rose from 90% to 80% during the crisis. However, the sixth show (linked to magician Criss Angel) is new and that it involves lower occupancy rates.

In addition, Vegas has experienced a hard year. Of course, Las Vegas is a more difficult now, "said also the CEO of Cirque, Daniel Lamarre, in April.

"Last year, Vegas was much more affected than our other markets". But in the end, with the sixth show, this has not affected our total sales of tickets. And right now, Vegas has taken over. "

A few days ago, the CEO of Cirque du partner to Vegas, MGM Mirage, said that the city hotels and casinos were "clearly on the road to recovery, which is very good news because it was a brutal years .

The "orders" of Cirque goes well, says Ménard. Il s'agit maintenant de le concrétiser. It is now time to implement it. "The Circus is careful and tries to anticipate the next three or four years. Be sure to complete power projects. "

It is in this spirit that the wage freeze was announced in December. "It was a preventive measure, whose purpose was simply to protect jobs," said the spokesman.

Frost, which affected 4500 employees Circus and senior management, amounts to a saving of 2.5% of salary costs. This has not prevented the company to pay performance bonuses of 3% in the spring.

Cirque has nevertheless extended its wage freeze for the second half. Whether or not he will continue in 2010.

"Vigilance is key, says Ménard. An assessment will be made at the end of the year to see if it happens in the budget. The management will act accordingly. "

Cirque also reduced by 20% the cost of travel and travel. The permanent show planned in Dubai has also been delayed because of the crisis. No new date has yet been announced.

In April, Daniel Lamarre said he was rather optimistic about the capacity of the Circus and art institutions to bail out in times of recession.

"People do not buy a car or house, but they buy tickets to see Cirque, he said."