11/08/2019 16:34

Croissant and Les Champs-Elysees

[IMG=19095-4744] On February 16th traditional press conference and workshop organized by Maison de la France were held in Moscow where tour operating companies from Moscow, St. Petersburg and Ekaterinburg had an opportunity to ask their questions to the representatives of French travel industry. The Head of Office du Tourisme et des Congres de Paris, Paul Roll, pointed out that in 2005 Paris welcomed a record number of tourists from all over the world for the last five years: ‘There was stagnation of main tourist flows from the USA and Japan due to the terrorist acts in New-York, unfavourable geopolitical factors and atypical pneumonia but in 2005 the situation stabilized. Meanwhile, tourist flows from Russia, China, India, and South America, which in 2000 did not play an important role in French tourism, increased considerably by 2005’. This explains the interest of representatives of French travel industry in Russian travel market, although tourist flow from Russia is relatively low – in 2005 French Consulates in Moscow and St. Petersburg issued 310, 000 tourist visas for Russians’, said Christian Walgenwitz, the Head of Maison de la France in Moscow. Furthermore, according to tour operators interviewed by a BANKO correspondent, the French delegation practically has not changed since last years. ‘Every year the same hotels and the same entertainment organizations take part in the workshop, while it would be interesting to learn about the diversity of Paris. Besides, we would prefer if they presented combined tours rather than separated options’, said Nikolay Sokolov, Senior Manager of the French Department of Rosa Vetrov. In addition, Paul Roll, focused on some new tendencies of French tourism. For example, interest in further development of incentive tourism was pointed out: ‘Last year Paris hotels welcomed 8,7 million tourists, 50% being on business trips. We plan to increase their number by building the second Congress Palace and other exhibition centers’. Moreover, tour operators outlined the increased interest of Russian tourists in French exhibitions and conferences. ‘Comparing to last year the incentive tourism volume has doubled’, stated Eugenia Goncharova, Senior Manager of French Department of DSBW.