Even in a medal-hopeful Olympic year, is it worth proclaiming hypothetical records in advance? Abandoned in the post-Covid reconstruction phase, the goal of 100 million international tourist arrivals is making a comeback in 2024. Incantation or substantiated forecast? In any case, the announcement has had an impressive effect. But this come-back to an obsession with volume eventually masks the true value of our tourism.

When I look at myself, I feel sorry. But when I compare myself, I console myself, said Talleyrand, the "lame devil". We all need to compare ourselves, but with whom and on the basis of what figures? Is French tourism limping along, too, and in need of consolation?

Tourism operators have energetically managed to end 2023 on a very positive note. Not all the indicators for 2019 are back in the green, but the forward momentum is well underway.

But as always, behind the average, the reality is more mixed. Overall, the industry is in good health, but it's limping along. While the most dynamic companies, backed by shareholders and investors, have boosted their business models, readjusted their offerings and mobilized their staff, many smaller operators, generating lower added value, were kept on life support during the crisis and are now silently giving up.

Business failures are at an all-time high at the start of this year, and the trend is likely to intensify in the face of rising costs, falling purchasing power for part of the population, and the difficulty of maintaining a good level of service in the eyes of consumers who are more demanding than ever. Fortunately, our sector's offer is not universal, and not all players are on the same level.

A two-speed market is gradually taking hold. Leaders, that are performing well, are masking the difficulties of struggling players. We can expect a new wave of restructuring around the strongest players. The process may prove brutal, but it has the merit of triggering the necessary transformation of the sector.

But how will this transformation be accompanied? Certainly not by repeating over and over again that we are a destination blessed by the gods and that visitor flows will naturally swell to the symbolic threshold of 100 million.

Let's not fight the wrong battle! By chasing the wrong horse, we'll end up losing the race for good. Focusing on volume means competing with Spain, which long ago overtook us in terms of the actual number of international visitors. Our privileged geographical location has maintained an illusion that has evaporated in 2023 in the face of the undeniable success of the Iberian peninsula and its islands. Let's salute the efficiency of its promotional agency. That's not the most important thing, but it's an opportunity to change the narrative. In this age of local tourism, do we need to get lost in an anachronistic battle and be "late for a war", as General de Gaulle would have it?

Exceltur, a group of major Spanish companies, stresses the importance of this sector to Iberian GDP: 12.6%, almost twice that of France. An increase of 40% in the space of 5 years.

But here again, the competition is not on the same level. Do we want mass tourism, essentially seaside resorts, or a more selective approach based on added value? Our tourist heritage, whether built or natural, can be valorized two to three times more than that of Spain.

Clearly, in order to support this transformation, the priority is to support investment. France has an excellent, if not the best, tourism investment ecosystem in Europe: proactive territories, recognized expertise, highly complementary public and private financial vehicles and high-performance ROI.

From its creation the Hospitality Asset Forum has always emphasized the exemplary initiatives of the players in this ecosystem, who have learned to work effectively together, inventing original forms of partnership.

If we end up welcoming 100 million international arrivals, this year or later, let it be thanks to the combined attractiveness of all our destinations and all our businesses linked to tourism and hospitality. The most important thing is for the market to generate the added value that will enable us to maintain our assets, remunerate our employees, accelerate CSR and, more generally, transform the sector's economic landscape.

A brilliant Olympic summer should not mask the difficulties that are piling up. “To rule is to anticipate”. Hospitality managers have a duty to anticipate recruitment difficulties, the cost of financing, the arrival of new technologies, and the behavior of customers, both individual and corporate, leisure and corporate.

We invite you to join us at the next Hospitality Operator Forum to think about how to preserve margins, boost productivity and appeal, and capitalize even more effectively on the expected Olympic momentum..

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