Informe semanal de noticias elaborado por la Oficina Turismo de Tenerife en París
- Market trends/Destination news:
Flixbus is about to buy Eurolines and isilines
Transdev Group could sell Eurolines and isilines to Flixbus. The two operators have entered into exclusive negotiations and will therefore initiate the information-consultation procedure with the employee representative bodies concerned by this proposed sale. As a reminder, Eurolines currently operates in France, the Netherlands, Belgium, the Czech Republic and Spain, with a bus network covering 25 countries. Echo Touristique
By integrating online payment, Leboncoin wants to become the alternative to Airbnb
With 4.5 million French people booking their holiday accommodation on Leboncoin every year, the platform wants to accelerate in this segment of activity. Leboncoin has been integrating a payment tool for 3 months now and is also investing in communication to compete with Airbnb. Three months after its deployment, the tool was used by 10,000 out of a total of 130,000 hosts. The CEO also said he is working closely with hoteliers to accelerate his development in the segment and plans significant investments in communication. Tom Travel
TripAdvisor study: what are the latest travel trends for the French?
Commissioned from Jumpshot, and carried out in December 2018, the study shows a renewed interest in cruises and nautical circuits among the French (+44%) compared to last year. The study is based on the growth in bookings observed on TripAdvisor. In the ranking, water sports trips are ahead (in volume) of day trips and visits (+38%), followed by shows, concerts and sporting events (+40%). One of the main lessons of the study is that the French prefer small changes of scenery and short stays.TourMag
The French believe they can visit a city more than five times before they have visited it
An Opinionway survey conducted for Transavia shows that 70% of French people prefer to do less during their trip and prefer to spend their holidays at their own pace. On average, they estimate that they can visit a city more than 5 times before they have visited it. Another lesson of this survey is that many French people prefer quality to quantity. They are not trying to break the record for the number of countries visited. On the contrary, 92% of them say they are ready to return to a destination they have already visited to discover new things. Quotidien du Tourisme
Mélia expects «moderate growth» in 2019
Meliá Hotels International realised a capital gain of €140.1 million in 2018, an improvement of 13% compared to the previous year, despite a slight decline in consolidated revenue (-1.5%) to €1,831.3 million. Another highlight was Meliá.com’s increasing penetration in regions such as the Asia-Pacific region (35.7% increase in sales), Spanish cities (+20%) or America, the Mediterranean and Cuba, where it increased by about 12%. Quotidien du Tourisme
Easter holidays: The destinations sought by the French at Go Voyages
Less than 3 hours flight from France, Portugal is the most popular destination for the Easter holidays, with Lisbon being the most reserved destination and Porto the second.
- Lisbon
- Porto
- Istanbul
- Rome
- Marrakech
- London
- New York City
- Tunis
- Venice
- Pointe-à-Pitre
- Airline news:
Dutch government acquires stake in Air France – KLM: Air France unions are concerned
All Air France unions – Alter, CFDT, CFDT, CFE-CGC, CFTC, CGT, SGFOAF, SNGAF, SNPL, SNPC, SPAF, SUD aérien, UNAC, UNPNC, UNSA – meeting in interunion issued a joint press release on the Dutch government’s acquisition of a stake in the Air France- KLM group. And the least we can say is that they are worried. They say it: «This unexpected procedure worries all Air France staff, who are committed to defending French air transport. It is more than necessary to guarantee and strengthen Air France’s growth within the Air France – KLM group in a context of competition that must not be distorted. Quotidien du Tourisme
- Tour operator news:
How Arts et Vie tries to open the cultural trip to as many people as possible
The association, which produces and distributes its own trips, is taking advantage of a successful 2018 to expand its offer even further. Since its creation in 1955, the Arts et Vie association has never recorded a turnover as high as that achieved in 2018 (65 million euros). «We are a generalist TO and have a solid base of loyal member-clients who allow us to get through all crises,» says Delphine Camara, the association’s deputy director. L’Echo Touristique
VoyagesPirates.fr is enriched with a page reserved for «early booking» offers
Accessible from the home page of the site, the new offer aims to simplify the search for users, who thus have a direct and complete overview of the «early booking» offers published by the «experts» of VoyagesPirates. With departure proposals from France and neighbouring countries, users can find offers for different types of accommodation (hotels, campsites…), city breaks and short stays or holidays on the other side of the world. Quotidien du Tourisme
TripAdvisor does not want to be an OTA but a social network
On the occasion of the ITB exhibition currently taking place in Berlin, Stephen Kaufer, Co-founder, President and CEO of TripAdvisor, answered a few questions in an agreed interview. Through his answers, he confirmed his ambition to make TripAdvisor a social network rather than an OTA. The CEO stated that TripAdvisor’s goal was not to become an OTA. «It’s okay if you don’t book with us,» he said to the audience, «we propose to book activities for example, but what we want most of all is to allow travellers to make the right decisions. Obviously, the platform does not want to develop this business model. Tom Travel
