Provence Alpes Côte d'Azur wants to embrace the Chinese market to the fullest

The Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur Region does not want to miss out on a piece of the Chinese cake.

The region has been committed to conquering that market for 10 years now. On par with this strategy, the region garnered the forces of its different institutions.

The Regional Tourism Committee of PACA, Bouches-du-Rhône Tourism, Vaucluse Departmental Tourism Committee, the city of Marseille, and the Marseille Provence Airport co-organized educational tours in the Vaucluse and Bouches-du-Rhône for 70 Chinese tour-operators, over the span of three days

This event concluded with a workshop during which over 120 tourism professionals of the region introduced their offers.

In 2014, 102 million Chinese people traveled throughout the world, of which 2 million went to France. Provence and Côte d’Azur draws in around 10 and 15% of these visitors.

“This is one of the most popular regions in China, but the margin of improvement is still enormous,” believes Bruno James, Executive Director of CRT Paca.

Since 2010, the number of nights spent by Chinese visitors in Paca increased by 169% (206,827 nights in 2014) accounting for 2.4% of the total international nights in the region, versus 1% 5 years ago.

Today, clients coming from China stay in hotels, but Bruno James believes that “tomorrow, tourism residences will become an accommodations options for middle-class Chinese travelers.”

Because while inhabitants of major urban centers have already experienced traveling, there remains a large reserve of travelers in other cities.

“China has 50 cities with over one million habitants that are still developing. Varying degrees of maturity inside the country foreshadow that development will spread out over several years,” explains Maxime Tissot, Executive Director of the Tourism and Congress Office of Marseille.

To seduce Chinese travelers, professionals will need to especially improve on hospitality. The Marseille Tourism Office has already recruited 2 people devoted to this market and has begun a process of translating touristic documents.

“We must work strongly on the hospitality aspect, and I incite all structures to translate their documents in Chinese,” states Maxime Tissot.

He not only incites tourism professionals but also businesses to join this effort, because shopping is a crucial element to Chinese visitors.

A Chinese tourist spends on average €185 per person and per night versus €53 for a French tourist. “Chinese travelers are consumers, confirms Pierre Shi, Manager of ID Travel Pro. They are fond of French brands that are more expensive in China, but also of typical products made in France.

Our Tour-Operator discovered the Calisson of Aix-en-Provence, which is exactly the type of product that attracts clients.”

In order to expand the influx coming from China, the region hopes to implement a direct flight to the Marseille-Provence Airport.

“We hope that between now and 3 to 5 years, we will be able to orient a portion of this influx directly with no stop-over flights, first thanks to charter flights, then via a regular line,” highlights Julien Boullay, Marketing Director of the Marseille Provence Airport.

The goal is to duplicate the successful model of charter flights between Marseille and South Korea. “We are the only platform in the Province to be linked directly to Asia. Charter flights towards Korea began in 2014 with 3 flights, then 4 last year, and they’ll go up to 8 in 2016, proof that the destination is keeping its promises,” adds Julien Boullay.

The airport benefits from the major privilege of its central positioning, which is ideal to visit the greater South-East region from Carcassonne to Nice, but also to explore Italy and Spain…


Provence Alpes Côte d'Azur veut croquer à pleines dents dans le gâteau chinois