|
|
 |
 |
 |
| Tuesday, 28 September 2004 |
 |
|
 |
Features | |
| News Business Features Editorial Security Politics World Letters Sports Obituaries
|
Maison de La France: Promoting France to the world For 17 years, Maison de la France has been focused on one mission: to promote France as a first-rate holiday destination drawing on its network of 33 local offices worldwide and an innovative partnership and marketing strategy concentrated largely on the quality of the French tourism industry.
While France is the world's leading tourist destination in volume with 75 million tourists visiting France in 2003 (11% of the world market), it only ranks third in terms of earnings (32.3 billion euros in 2003) behind the United States and Spain, and just ahead of Italy. Maison de la France, an economic interest grouping founded in 1987 under the auspices of the Minister of Tourism, boasts an original structure based on a partnership between the Government, the local and regional authorities, the tourist trade and other major sectors of the French economy. The group carries out 2,000 promotional activities a year based on a marketing strategy whose tactic for 2002-2004 is to focus more on the quality than the quantity of tourism. This objective echoes a near-prophetic statement by the Touring Club de France's Vice President some 75 years ago. In 1928, he wrote in 'The Economic Importance of Tourism' that, "Whereas tourism used to be the self-centred art of good travelling, today, it has become the national industry of good hospitality." Hospitality is one of the key factors of Maison de la France's Destination France campaign - a factor that needs to be constantly improved to meet the fierce competition in the world tourism industry and the public's ever-increasing demands. A recent poll for Maison de la France shows that France's tourist trade has a better image abroad among industry players and journalists than among the general public. Although holidaymakers have a good image of France with its rich culture, good food and glittering nightlife, the poll finds that the level of hospitality and accommodation is felt to be below par. The Minister in charge of Tourism has just launched a new Welcome to France campaign to promote French hospitality, taking over from the rather staid ten-year Bonjour campaign. The new campaign aims to "show tourists that France is gearing up to provide a better level of hospitality both upstream of and during their stay." This task is generating a great deal of excitement among the 79 staff at Maison de la France headquarters in Paris and the 200 employees in its 33 branch offices (the oldest of which opened in Barcelona in 1919) in 28 countries. The Destination France campaign consists of over 2,000 promotional activities per year, including communication campaigns, marketing and press and public relations, all to enhance France's image abroad. The organisation is helped in this by its partners representing the entire French tourism industry; 34 per cent are local and regional authorities (regional tourism boards, tourist information bureaus, local councils, and inter-regional and inter-council bodies), 40% are direct stakeholders (hoteliers, restaurateurs, carriers and tour operators), and 26 per cent represent tourist services and leisure activities (cultural and historical sites, parks and leisure, golf courses, and retailers). Among the organisation's private partners figure the major cabaret shows, the Bateaux-Mouche cruise and restaurant boats, top perfumers and car rental firms. Maison de la France boasts an original structure for its partners. The major sector of the tourism industry are clubbed together into fifteen product clubs and working groups covering business, culture, various leisure activities and nature. This set-up brings together industry players interested in developing a certain sector, segment or product and enables them to organise highly targeted promotional events. For example, the French Business and Convention Travel Club works alongside the Health and Fitness Club, the Naturism Club, the Chateaux-Museums-Monuments Club, the Seaside, Mountain and Overseas Club, and the wine tourism and pilgrimage tours working groups. Maison de la France has a budget of 59 million euros for 2004, provided by the Government (53%) and its partners (47%). The organisation works primarily on the leading tourism client markets such as the EU, North America and Japan, but also on emerging markets with high tourism potential such as Russia, Brazil, China, South Korea, India and Mexico. A study released when ten new countries joined the EU on May 1, 2004 reports that the Central European countries represent a promising market for the French tourism industry. The Maison de la France website (www.franceguide.com), the official portal for the promotion of the French tourism trade, is translated into 10 languages (French, English, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Hebrew, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese). Japanese, Korean and Arabic versions will also soon be available. In 2003, the site counted 8.2 million hits, with 24 million pages read and 230,000 visitors per month, each surfer spending an average of nine minutes per visit on the site. - Claudine Canetti (Courtesy: Actualite en France) |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
Produced by Lake House |
