This Thursday, about sixty foreign and French leaders and organizations from the travel and tourism sector gathered around Emmanuel Macron for the first edition of the “Destination France Summit”.
In Paris, the “Destination France Summit” brought together the travel and tourism industry. The objective of this first summit was to determine how France could remain the world’s leading tourist destination and attract investors. The President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron established the foundations of French tourism and the evolutions towards which the sector could move.
He said in his welcome speech at the Élysée Palace, “We must multiply synergies between sectors” and “think 5-10 years ahead to get tourism back on track and for destination France to become number one again, after a health crisis that reduced the number of foreign tourists to France from 90 million in 2019 to 40 million in 2020. We had 15 billion euros of investment per year before the crisis, we must aim for 20 billion per year,” he continued, “I need your investments.”
From Marietton to Voyageurs du Monde, through Airbnb, Accor, Air France or TripAdvisor, the players in tourism have responded to this great gathering.
The reconquest
A “plan to win back tourism” will be unveiled in mid-November by the Prime Minister, Jean Castex. Before the health crisis, the tourism sector represented 16 billion euros of investment per year, but these figures have fallen to around 10 billion since the pandemic, according to Atout France.
The President also spoke of the health pass that has allowed “reopening in more serene conditions of establishments completely closed. (…) Despite the resumption of the epidemic, we can say today that we will continue to hold, we will adjust the controls, we will perhaps reinforce at this or that moment but we will leave this binary logic between complete opening or complete closing“.
Since June and the idea of a plan to regain tourism, the government has been consulting with professionals in the sector as well as with communities. During the health crisis, the State invested 38 billion euros of aid in the tourism sector. Before the pandemic, the sector represented no less than 7.4% of GDP in 2019 and 9.5% of jobs. In 2019, 90 million foreign tourists had come to France, confirming its place as the world’s leading tourist destination and generating 170 billion euros in revenue. The first months of 2020 were also part of a positive dynamic, both in terms of arrivals and revenues generated, but the Covid-19 epidemic put a stop to this upturn.
Read also > LUXURY HOTELS: NICE TARGETS WEALTHY CUSTOMERS FOR TOURISM RECOVERY
Featured photo : © Alexei Nikolsky / TASS / Sipa USA / SIPA
