Tourism Alliance launched by French Businesses

A new organisation has been launched by nineteen French companies,

including the likes of Kering and Groupe Galeries Lafayette, which is aimed at promoting and supporting tourism in France.

France has been losing it market share over the past few years, despite remaining one of the world's top destination for overseas tourists in terms of volume and the new organisation, names Alliance 46.2 consists of companies from a number of sectors keen on boosting tourism, such as retail, travel, food and hotel.

Other founders of the organisation include Accor; Aéroports de Paris; Paribas; Cityvision; Club Méditerranée; Compagnie des Alpes; Elior; Euro Disney; Groupe Galeries Lafayette; GL Events; Kering; Lagardère Services; Groupe Lucien Barrière; Groupe Pierre & Vacances-Center Parcs; and Viparis.

The managing director of Alliance 46.2, Frédéric Pierret, said that is was important for the country to improve its efforts in attracting international visitors to be able to keep up with competition from countries such as the US and China, which have passed a number of laws of the past years to promote tourism.

In 2012 reported 83 million visitors, but is lagging behind neighbouring countries such as Germany and Spain in terms of growing visitor numbers and revenues since 2000, according to statistics provided by the company. Alliance 46.2 has devised working groups around four subjects: promotion, visitor welcome, jobs and training and investment.