Agents have a new role as advisors
The first non-French to head a country for Atout France, Sheetal Munshaw is back at the NTO with all guns blazing. Her priority is to promote France’s diversity and expose more regions to Indians.
have you been focusing on since you’ve taken over?
Coming back to Atout France feels like a natural extension and we are already in the thick of very many things. A lot of effort is being put in to keep projecting France as a multi-faceted destination. We are not a monolithic destination; it has huge diversity and we are going to try and promote it. Places like Nice and Chamonix have done really well. Champagne, MidiPyrenees and Marseilles are the other new regions that have shown interest in coming to India. We will also have a B2B campaign with Midi-Pyrenees.
are the tourist figures doing?
We have good news. France received 400,000 passengers to France in 2014 which is an 18 per cent increase as compared to 2013. Visa facilitation has definitely helped boost the figures and has led to visas being issued within 48 hours in Mumbai.
kind of travellers are you looking to tap?
There still are travellers who want to do whirlwind helicopter trips. But there are also those who need two-three international holidays a year because they look at travel as a part of lifestyle. Travellers now are very young, even 18year olds. There is a new generation of travel and there is a new way in which people travel, which is more experiential.
After Champagne, we have another delegation coming down in September for our three-city annual roadshow Rendezvous en France. We will go to Bengaluru also this year apart from Mumbai and New Delhi, which will be the first time for us in a decade. This is also because Air France is keenly looking at Bengaluru. We have about 24 partners with us and new regions coming in as well. Marseilles has come in for the first time. So there is definitely more and more interest in the Indian market from the French side as well.
We are also focusing a lot on MICE and we have about 10 travel agencies going to Strasbourg in October for our MICE summit called France Meeting Hub. Of course, familiarisation trips will continue; they have a much more important role to play today than it ever did. We will continue to have our evenings with Air France and Accor which we do every year under the banner of Beaujolais. The format may change but the partnerships continue.
you plan to promote a new product to the Indian market?
Yes, we are going to look at winter tourism next year. In January, we will have the Grand Ski, which is our winter B2B showcase. We have seen a rising interest in winter tourism from India so we are not just targeting a summer market. We think India has come of age for this product.
Apart from this, wine and culinary tourism will be a big focus area for us. We will continue to talk to the travellers through the travel trade who are interested in food and wine, culinary tours, gastronomy, self drives – basically all the niche segments that are now up and coming. And we will keep adding new regions because travellers have now understood that France is whole lot more than Paris.