overcome stereotypes and play with the image of sustainable tourism

Overcome stereotypes and play

with the image of sustainable

tourism

French outbound tourism market

A little history of

sustainable tourism in France

1997-2

006 First operators

committed to sustainable tourism were fair trade in tourism & adventure

tourism TO… 

2007:

A k

ey

year

Voyages-sncf.com launched the French

Responsible Tourism

Awards with Yann Arthus Bertrand

2008-2

013 Adventure tour-

operators, fair-trade in

tourism, CSR in large

TOs, certification development in hotels

& new trends & expectations of french

tourists…

New trends &

expectations of french tourists

New

ex

pect

ati

ons Emotion

ExperienceMeetingsLearning

Participation

Exchange

WellnessNature

JoyDisconnectionRelaxation

Fun

Discovery

Committment

New

tre

ndy

form

s of

touri

sm Creative tourismParticipative tourismEcomobility

Slow tourism

Voluntourism

Ecotourism

Share economy in tourism

An in

tere

st f

or

resp

onsi

ble

touri

sm

71% of the tourists on

Tripadvisor want to do

an eco-friendly trip;84% of the French say

they have heard spoken of responsible

tourism (Voyages-sncf.com-2013)

Several name used – all painted with the

same brusch

The d

iffere

nt

nam

es

for

sust

ain

able

to

uri

sm f

orm

s

Tourisme durable, tourisme responsable,

écotourisme, tourisme

équitable, tourisme solidaire, tourisme éthique, tourisme communautaire, tourisme participatif,

tourisme créatif, volontourisme, écovolontariat

Whic

h t

erm

is

well

know

n?

French

people

thin

k th

ey

alr

eady

trave

lled in

a

resp

onsi

ble

manner…

A d

ifficu

lty

to fi

nd

info

rmati

on… 64% say it is somewhat or very

difficult to find information to organize a responsible

trip (72% of the 18-24

years old)

Which stereotypes ?

Exp

ensi

ve &

not

so a

ttra

ctiv

e

Resp

onsi

ble

tri

p

= r

ura

l touri

sm

71% think a responsible trip must

be in the countryside,

34% in guest rooms,

16% in the high mountains, etc..

Hote

l clu

b &

seasi

de

touri

sm c

annot

be

sust

ain

able

touri

sm

Tow

ard

s part

icip

ati

ve

& c

reati

ve t

ouri

sm…

How to adapt your communication to catch the french market?

What

stra

tegy?

It depends of your targets, not of the kind

of products your are

selling or the degree

of committment of your company..

Necessity to come back to the roots of tourism marketing. Communicate on the

benefits of the products for the client

For

adve

ntu

re

tour-

opera

tors

Speak about the experience for the tourists by the immersion in the nature & meetings with local population

For

com

munit

y-base

d t

ouri

sm

org

aniz

ati

on

Speak about immersion, price transparency, storytelling of the project. In french, you

can speak about Tourisme Equitable et

Solidaire.

For

volu

nto

uri

sm

org

aniz

ati

on

Speak about immersion, positive impacts, social & financial transparency,

capacity building & storytelling of the project

For

upsc

ale

&

luxu

ry h

ote

lsSpeak about experience, wellness,

quality, disconnection

& storytelling of the committment/CSR

For

hote

l clu

b &

se

asi

de t

ouri

smSpeak about wellness,

quality, fun & storytelling about your

committment (meals,

water, energy, positive

impacts on local community, etc.)

Thank you!

Guillaume CROMER

ID-Tourism, International Coalition for Responsible

Tourism, ATD-Acteurs du Tourisme Durable

g.cromer@id-tourism.travelParis, France