The government launched the Tourism Conference. One can only rejoice. Certainly, France is proud to be a world leader in this sector. But for how long?
When hundreds of millions of Chinese, Indians, Brazilians, and many others are beginning to see the world, especially Europe, how we prepare to welcome in the best conditions?
The sector deserves better than the little attention it has received from the government for too long. He deserves better, especially that the prejudice that identifies the tourist from France to become the inevitability of industrialization, suggesting that this activity is not really productive.
It is more than time to move beyond this simplistic view. Tourism, in addition to being an industry, turned many others. The only part of the tourism sector in the gross domestic product (GDP) is already at 7%.
2 MILLION JOBS
It is far superior to those of the energy and agriculture; and its induced effects, tourism reached almost 10% of GDP and about 2 million jobs.
This is the first post of our balance of payments, far ahead of agribusiness, automotive and aerospace.
It is under the sign of productive recovery committed that should be part of a tourism policy and daring entertainment. How to enhance our offering to meet a quest for the good life that is found in our country - the most visited in the world - its promised land?
France has unique strengths: unique diversity of its landscape, its climate, its natural and historical heritage, its rich cultural life, gastronomy etc ... And yet our country annually loses market share in Europe compared to Spain or Italy but also in Germany.
THIRD EUROPEAN ROW
She is no longer in third place in terms of revenue. The most beautiful sites are not enough to keep the traveler who built his stay as an overall experience, and with an unprecedented professionalism, the net can compare and compose its offerings.
In a world where reputations unmade virally, if art and the good life "French" are not at the rendezvous, then the customer will leave with a souvenir contrast and image of the destination- France could soon be underway.
Upon arrival at the airport or train station, our brand is engaged. Throughout their stay, it is the attention to passing visitors is appreciated. Did you know that the site Traveller Where are you now elected the French "the most inhospitable people in the world," noting in passing our reluctance to communicate in English, while other sites rank our cities among the dirtiest of Europe? Beyond their exaggeration we should not neglect these opinions.
Bad quality / price report some of our accommodation is commonly criticized as well. Similarly, are often mentioned the uneven level of our transportation infrastructure -that the case in Paris that do not yet have a direct connection between its airports and Paris, the most visited city in the world - but as the opening hours of our stores, especially in large cities.
STRENGTHENING THE QUALIFICATIONS OF OUR BUSINESSES
Cumbersome and complex procedures (planning, visas ...) have their share of responsibility. Not to mention the reputation of our country among investors, we need to fund our projects.
A comprehensive proactive policy is needed.
Investment in human capital must be at the heart of this approach. It is crucial to meet the host customer requirements and develop creativity and innovation, especially if we want to defend France for tourism development design high quality content.
We need to strengthen our business skills - including language - better professional and secure our jobs, despite their seasonal nature. It is a sustainable profitability that we want to promote and certainly not a destructive productivism natural and social balances.
FEDERATING LOCAL ECONOMIC FABRIC
Our success will depend greatly on our ability to bring players a relatively fragmented profession, so as to defend beyond the pre-squares mark France. This requires a more structured industry is lacking in some areas, operators of critical size.
So, do we want to leave the promotion of our sites only to global giants of marketing on the net? The development of tourism is not only a matter for professionals. Also, we have put in place initiatives that bring together the local economy, to the benefit of the territories and their inhabitants.
That's what we did, for example, the Compagnie des Alpes creating in April, with the Caisse des Dépôts, three Rhône-Alpes regional banks and local communities, a real estate company to renovate hundreds of homes aging in our mountains.
To meet these challenges, we can not expect everything from the government. However, the State and local authorities have a key role to play in creating a favorable framework for tourism development.
A CHANCE FOR FRANCE
It is for the state to go beyond a purely sectoral approach, and fully take into account the component "tourism" in the definition and implementation of its shares, raising as much as he possible legislative and regulatory barriers to its development.
We can expect the state to promote developmental projects at the national level, as it has done in the past, with the snow level or coastal development, for example. It is also necessary to generate and better support local initiatives that are becoming more difficult to achieve due to cumbersome procedures and, it must be said, the reluctance and indecision public actors.
Tourism is a chance for France. Let us make a growth in conjuring our weaknesses and enhancing our great strengths.
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