Jean Castex unveiled this Saturday a plan to 1.9 billion euros for France to remain the world’s leading tourist destination, after having suffered greatly from the pandemic.
Better promote heritage, upgrade the offer, encourage innovation and digitization: the Prime Minister presented on Saturday a 1.9 billion euro plan to revive tourism in France, a sector severely affected by the pandemic, and to strengthen the country as the world’s leading tourist destination.
During the health crisis, the State invested 38 billion euros in aid in the tourism sector which represented in 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic, 7.4% of GDP and 9.5% of jobs. In 2019, 90 million foreign tourists came to France, generating 170 billion euros in revenue.
Strengthen the strengths of the French tourism sector
Traveling in Indre-et-Loire, Jean Castex detailed this Saturday the government investment plan in tourism announced in June by the President of the Republic and of which Matignon presented the main lines on Friday. It will be spread over ten years.
This plan, which was the subject of a consultation with professionals in the sector and communities, will have an envelope of 1.9 billion euros, according to Matignon, mostly made up of loans.
With this sum, the government wishes to support the move upmarket of the offer, help the development of infrastructure and transport, encourage innovation and digitization, as well as promote heritage. It also intends to improve training and the attractiveness of trades in the sector, in particular by structuring a “network of excellence” of specialized training in tourism and by organizing communication campaigns.
In detail, 750 million euros will take the form of tourism loans, a tool of the public bank Bpifrance, dedicated to SMEs and VSEs in the tourism sector who need to invest in order to modernize.
The government will also offer a 500 million euro tourism stimulus loan, long-term loans from the Bank of the Territories, intended to support major investments by businesses or communities. This device, which already existed, has been revised because it was not used until now due to technical difficulties.
Around 650 million euros will take the form of new loans, with a jumble: aid for the most disadvantaged to go on vacation; others to bring exhibitors back to shows and fairs; or even aid to develop responsible tourism to the tune of 120 million euros. Because the plan also aims to make France the first sustainable tourism destination by 2030, according to Matignon.
“Strong measures” to boost attractiveness
But, the professionals of the sector wanted as a priority that the plan foresees a staggering of the repayment of loans guaranteed by the State (PGE), over 10 to 12 years, against four years currently.
“It is essential to allow companies to continue to operate and to invest, explains to AFP Hervé Becam, vice-president of the main employers’ union of the hotel and catering industry, Umih. We want to prevent our heads from ‘companies find themselves alone in front of their banker to negotiate the reimbursement of their EMP. It must be supervised. “
The Minister of the Economy seemed to close the door, at the beginning of the week, to any “systematic measure of spreading or abandonment” of the PGE, the reimbursement of which will have to begin in March 2022, by declaring that the PGE were “693,000 private law contracts to which the State had only provided its guarantee “.
However, Bruno Le Maire promised that no company would go out of business because of its inability to repay an EMP.
To better highlight the hotel offer, the classification of establishments (one to five stars) will be modernized to integrate sustainable development or the digitization of services.
Didier Chenet, president of the union of independent hotel and restaurant workers, the GNI, pleads for a “European classification allowing foreign tourists to ensure the quality of their accommodation”, tax incentives favoring investment in terms of ‘ecology or digital, or to facilitate business transfers: an “exemption from duties, if the one who takes over undertakes to keep the staff and to invest up to the saving of registration fees”, says he told AFP.
–
