Atout France and easyJet have signed a three-year partnership deal on 4 November 2019 at World Travel Market (London’s ExCEL Centre) continuing to support France’s inbound tourism.

The three-year contract between Atout France, the France Tourism Development Agency, and easyJet, Europe’s leading airline, reinforces their long-term partnership and commitment to French tourism economy.  The two companies will promote key French destinations to drive traffic from the UK and German markets to France. A joint marketing campaign will be launched and reinforced with intelligence sharing through findings and research.

On 4 November at 14:30, Caroline Leboucher, CEO of Atout France, and Francois Bacchetta, easyJet’s Regional General Manager for France and Italy, signed a new three-year contract  on the Atout France stand EU300. This will be a continuation of the successful collaboration between Atout France and easyJet established in 2017.

With a record number of more than 90 million international visitors in 2018 (overseas included), France remains the most visited destination in the world. The British are still the primary foreign clientele visiting France, representing 14.6% of the total number of international tourists counting for 13 million visitors in 2018 an increase of 2.4% over 2017. The British market is followed by those from Germany, whose visits increased by more than 4% from 11.8 million to 12.3 million (source: DGE).

With the UK and Germany being two inbound primary markets for France, the contract aims to increase France’s brand and destination awareness in the respective markets. It aims to promote the accessibility of key destinations in France and thereby generate a positive impact on the local economy. The extended partnership will reflect a joint spend of an estimated 1 million Euros per year.

The partnership will involve marketing campaigns with a common visual language, and collaborative social media and offline/out-of-home activity. It will also prioritise research through the optimisation and sharing of findings, a global analysis of economic and tourism data including visitor traffic from the UK and Germany, year-on-year evaluation and benchmarking.

Previous mutual campaigns between Atout France and easyJet have included Bordeaux and the Nouvelle Aquitaine region, Paris, Nantes and the Pays de la Loire region, Nice-Côte d’Azur, Toulouse and the Occitanie region, and Lyon and the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region.

The extended three-year partnership campaign will evolve annually and thereby allow focus on various French destinations.

easyJet’s Regional General Manager, Francois Bacchetta, commented:

“As the first short-haul network in Europe and second airline in France, we are proud and happy to contribute to France’s attractivity across Europe through this partnership with Atout France. For the past 20 years, easyJet has been a key contributor to the French economy, flying passengers across the French regions.”

Atout France’s CEO, Caroline Leboucher, said:

“Atout France is delighted to partner with easyJet for this campaign, and together continue to welcome over 25 million British and German tourists to France.”