The Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, working in conjunction with with the Paris City Council and the Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCIP), today unveiled a film promoting Paris, which they hope will contribute to boosting tourist numbers. Since the attacks of November 2015, the number of foreign visitors to The City of Lights has fallen to record lows. The City of Paris, the Government and economic players (both private and otherwise) in Paris decided to join forces to put together a recovery plan of more than €2M, which was launched at the beginning of the summer. (Paris is the world’s leading tourism destination and tourism, a vitally important economic sector, accounts for more than 13% of the city’s GDP and 500,000 jobs across the region.)
Office du Tourisme et des Congrès de Paris Logo (PRNewsFoto/Office du Tourisme)
Among the measures implemented is a promotional film, directed by Jalil Lespert, which enables the public to see the many attractions of the capital. It highlights the vibrancy of the city of Paris in 2016 through portraits of Parisians and visitors. It will be shown from next week onwards in France and abroad. It was unveiled this past Thursday by Anne Hidalgo and will be shown from next week onwards in France and abroad, thanks to cooperation of numerous partners across the board. (Watch The Film Here.)
‘When I was told about this project, I was delighted to pay tribute to my city. I was born here, I grew up here and I still live here today’, states Lespert. ‘I wanted to film the city’s streets, shops, cooking but more than anything I wanted to pay tribute to the stories that can be created here. I wanted to show Paris in a different way, a multifaceted Paris that conveys as many emotions and atmospheres as there are districts’, he explains.
The film offers a quick tour of the capital. To the music Just Need Your Love by Nice-based French band Hyphen Hyphen, it reveals Paris through its monuments, shops, gastronomy and also its hidden treasures and Parisians, on cafe terraces and along the Canal Saint-Martin.
‘Paris is a unique and magical city for so many reasons, whether because of its culture, fashion, gastronomy … We are resolutely determined to reaffirm Paris’s vocation to welcome visitors from all over the world. Paris, a resilient city, has known how to bounce back and today invites you to come and discover an innovative and vibrant city. Paris will always be Paris’, emphasized Hidalgo.
Her deputy for tourism, Jean-François Martins, outlined the distribution plan: the fleet of Air France planes, Paris airports, and those managed by the brand, Decaux screens in Milan, Shanghai, Tokyo, New York, Galeries Lafayette (in the Haussmann stores), Berlin and Beijing will all notably be showing the film in the next few weeks.
The Paris Convention and Visitors Bureau (Office du Tourisme et des Congrès de Paris) was created in 1971 by the Paris City Council and the Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry as a non-profit making association ruled by the French law of 1 July 1901. Its missions, as stated above, are to welcome and provide visitors with information; to promote the capital’s attractions, in France and abroad; and to provide assistance to Paris tourism professionals.
To welcome and provide our visitors with information, the Bureau runs five tourist information centers in the most popular parts of the capital. Some 25 reception staff reply in 12 languages to tourism-related questions about Paris and the Paris region.
The website PARISINFO extends and complements the role of the centers’ reception teams. An international portal for tourism in Paris, this virtual ‘Bureau’ is presented in four languages (French, English, German, and Spanish) and partially translated in seven others. It offers every type of useful information for an enjoyable stay in Paris.
In order to provide a comprehensive service, the Bureau’s information centres and website combine information and advice with commercial products relating to accommodation, transport, culture and leisure.
Working together with Parisian tourism professionals, the Bureau promotes Paris leisure and business tourism to tour operators and the media, advocates of the Paris destination. It develops a range of dedicated tools for them, notably the websites ‘press’ and ‘professionals’.
It elaborates and implements action plans targeted at its established markets and at markets with a high potential. To this effect, the Bureau organizes targeted operations (events, workshops) and takes part in trade shows, in France and abroad. In Paris, it offers familiarization tours for the press and tour operators. It replies to requests for help in the organization of company events. Finally, in synergy with the Paris City Council and the Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCIP), the Bureau supports the capital’s candidacies for the hosting of association congresses.
A platform for networking, dialogue and for creating partnerships for tourism sector professionals, the Bureau federates some 1,800 professional members. It promotes their services on the website PARISINFO, and involves them in themed initiatives, which it pilots with its institutional and private-sector partners. It monitors developments in the tourism sector and relays strategic information back to the industry as a whole, notably via its web space ‘Parisian Professionals’.
Fashion + Lifestyle 