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Welcoming speech Guy FAURE - Director of Research and of Tourism Planning for the Mountains at ODIT France, Representing Mr Léon BERTRAND, Minister Delegate for Tourism, France
Mr. Mayor of Chamonix;
Madame President of the Tourism Summits;
Madame Vice President of the Rhône-Alpes Regional Council, Delegate for Tourism and the Mountains;
Mr. Vice President of the Haute-Savoie General Council for Sport, Tourism, and Mountain Policy;
Ladies and Gentlemen the elected representatives;
Ladies and Gentlemen;
Dear Friends,First of all, I am keen to convey to you the regrets of Léon Bertrand, Minister Delegate for Tourism, who unfortunately could not be here with you today, and who designated the executive board of ODIT France to represent him.
He would have been happy to meet you here today for this 7th edition of the "Tourism Summits", in the magnificent Le Majestic Congress Centre in Chamonix Mont-Blanc.
Because this meeting—in a spot symbolic of mountain tourism in France, which assembles contributors from Europe as well as many countries farther away, such as the United States, Brazil, Japan, India, and Thailand—already promises to be rich in debates and especially constructive.
It is why I insist here and now on paying tribute to the dynamism of the teams who have joined forces to ensure the success of this event, with particular attention to Peter Keller, President of the Scientific Committee of the Tourism Summits.
First, I am going to give a broad outline of the situation of the industry that is both yours and mine: tourism in France.
In 2004, our country retained its rank as the number one destination in the world; we welcomed 75 million visitors.
Revenue from the tourism industry rose to 32.8 billion Euros in 2004, a slight increase of 1.5% in comparison with 2003. It represents 6.5% of France's GDP.
While travel constituted the top surplus item of the balance of payments up to 2003, with a record at 14.1 billion Euros in 2000, in 2004 the foreign-held balance of tourism moved to second place with 9.8 billion Euros, behind the automobile industry (12.2 billion Euros).
This inflexion is basically due to a significant increase in stays by the French abroad, not offset by the rise in revenue.
These results, while satisfactory, call for vigilance.
In this respect, it is necessary to reinforce our international presence.
We must continue our efforts of promoting the image of France abroad, whether to our nearby European neighbours or to countries on other continents.
The Maison de la France is applying itself in a remarkable way to this through the promotion of the Destination France recovery plan. Implementing its new 2005-2010 marketing strategy makes it possible to renew France's image and to reposition our country in expanding market segments.
These actions abroad will of course be even more effective since we will be able to respond in the best way to customers' expectations.
One of the points for improvement in our policies remains the welcome reserved for tourists. Noticeable progress can still be made; many articles in the foreign and French press have testified to this. On this theme, I will now get back to your present concerns.
Dominique Perben, during the Tourism congress that was held in Paris last 15 November, recalled his request to the Tourism department to host a Conference on Tourism that could bring all of the large departments from the Ministry for Infrastructure, Transport, Spatial Planning, Tourism and the Sea together to make an initial review of this subject of welcoming tourists. The vast resources of air, sea, and rail transportation could greatly contribute to improving the situation.
I cannot forget to cite the Qualité France programme, whose second sector devoted to tourism activities has just been launched. It will enable us to appreciably improve the average level of our tourist provisions, especially in the area of services.
Finally, to organise all its long-term actions, the State must also improve its performance and responsiveness.
The grouping together of departments responsible for Tourism is an illustration and a realisation of this.
Barely a month ago, Dominique Perben, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Spatial Planning, Tourism and the Sea, and Léon Bertrand, Minister Delegate for Tourism, opened the Maison du Tourisme at Place de Catalogne in Paris.
This association now brings together nearly all of the State's departments and groups under trusteeship that act in the area of tourism: the Tourism Directorate, the National Tourism Council, the Permanent Conference on Rural Tourism, as well as ODIT France (Tourism Observation, Development, and Engineering), a public interest group originating in January 2005 from the merger of the French Agency for Tourism Engineering (AFIT), the National Tourism Observatory (ONT), and the Department for Research and Tourism Planning of the Mountains (SEATM).
In 2007, the Maison de la France will join this association. Consequently, a genuine pole of expertise will be assembled in a single place, in the service of Tourism and its actors.
Finally, I will take advantage of this forum to quickly introduce you to ODIT France and the goals assigned to it by Léon Bertrand.
ODIT France, a new platform for expert appraisal of the French tourism offering, merges study, analysis, consulting, observation, assessment, and experimentation missions into a single tool "in partnership".
On this account, ODIT France gives contracting authority assistance in working out tourism projects, and conducts assessments and diagnoses.
As a resource centre and pole of competence, it acquires and spreads expertise and it connects parties with each other.
It carries out studies as part of a partnership, and distributes them in published form (around twenty a year).
It organises seminars and technical days, not to mention the Encounters, the large annual meeting of those active in the tourism offer, or the Mountain Talks, whose next edition will take place 15 September 2006 in Chambéry.
The partnership that I have just highlighted is in agreement with the State's other departments, local governments and their groups, various associations, and tourism professionals—in short, with all of the parties active in tourism.
I am keen to clarify that ODIT France maintains close relationships with private engineering practices, in the same way that the organisations that contributed to its creation did.
As was said earlier, ODIT France is developing its activities in partnership. The confidence granted by partners, parties active in tourism in France, is already translating into the increase, after less than one year in existence, in the number of members; into many requests for assistance from communities to help them, especially in structuring their tourism project; and into strengthened partnerships in research. Within this last context, I will cite the countryside and the highlands logbooks and the spring coast logbook, progeny of the mountain logbook that was published in 2001, "Guide to Leisure-Culture-Tourism Engineering: How to Work with a Consulting Firm", which made it possible to clarify the relationship context between a sponsor and a consultancy, and the work carried out on the future of the profession of travel agencies.
I will finish the quick introduction I have just made of ODIT France by explaining that in addition to its headquarters on Place de Catalogne in Paris, ODIT France also has territorial offices in the overseas départements (Réunion, the Caribbean), a "coast" office in Montpellier, and the department of research and tourism planning of the mountains as close as possible to the territories concerned: in Challes Les Eaux with two branch offices, one in Gap for the Southern Alps and Corsica, and the other in Toulouse for the Pyrenees and the southern Massif Central.
Ladies and Gentlemen, those are the few items that I wanted to bring to you today. It is now time to hand the floor over to work and debate. Allow me to wish you all a Great 2005 Tourism Summits.
Thank you.
