Holidays in France this summer: Greener and digital tourism is taking shape

"Get away from home". Epidemic forces, the French summer holidays will be tricolor and inspired by a need for "green": the opportunity to bring out a more "sustainable" tourism but also more digital, for some actors.

It was only on May 14 that the government gave the green light to reservations "in mainland France and overseas" for July and August, somewhat clearing the horizon for a tourism sector stricken by containment and closure borders.

And even if Italy announced this weekend that it would reopen its borders in early June to European tourists, a large majority of French people should not go away.

It is an opportunity "to raise awareness of the richness of the French tourist offer," said AFP Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, Secretary of State for Tourism.

Tourist offices and tourist sites have captured the expectations of future holidaymakers: the call of nature, the desire for wide-open spaces and short space, to escape crowdedness.

"Iodine and oxygen"

"Are you dreaming of Venice? Get away from home", claims the Vendée. The Parc des Ecrins promises "unspoiled nature" and "benevolent tourism", while the town of Anglet (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) boasts "iodine and oxygen".

Immersed in nature, high-end Huttopia campsites should fill up: almost stopped, reservations have increased fivefold compared to the week before, and website visits have surged since the announcements of 'Edouard Philippe on May 14.

"People need to breathe, to go for walks, to have space, they tell themselves that it is the year or never to go camping: this is the opportunity to live a little adventure without going away from home, "says its general manager Céline Bossanne.

"What works very well is our canvas and wood accommodation, which offers a real disconnect, a total change of scenery, while providing a certain comfort," she says.

On Airbnb, searches for rentals in France represent since May 11, the beginning of deconfinement, 85 per cent of searches for French users, in search of "stays in the great outdoors with family or friends, near their homes," says the platform.

The health crisis "can be a good window of opportunity for awareness" on respect for the environment, judge Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne.

But to establish a true "sustainable" tourism, it is necessary "to take stock of the greenhouse gases emitted by the tourism activity, then set a reduction objective and determine which tools to put in place to decarbonize", judges it, such as a "green star rating".

Caisse des Dépôts and Bpifrance have announced that environmental and digital criteria will be decisive in the granting of their loans and investments to revive the tourism sector.

This crisis must "allow businesses that have been weakened to reinvent themselves in French tourism of the future," said AFP Nicolas Dufourq, general manager of Bpifrance.

Thus in the absence of cultural events to promote, and with recipes for guided tours in free fall - there can only be 9 participants in a guided tour, in order to preserve social distancing, against 25 before the health crisis - the offices of tourism in the Lille metropolis are they now focusing on digital.

"We have digitized 11 routes in the city of Roubaix, available on the Cirkwi application in early June, walks focusing on the industrial heritage around the Pool Museum, art deco, street art and also the green city: we have the Eurovélo road along the canal and the Barbieux park ", explains Loïc Trinel, director of the city's tourist office.

In early July, walks will be offered throughout the metropolis as well as "geo catching" - a treasure hunt using a GPS or an application on smartphone - on the theme of the city.

"Something is going to change in tourism, with the fact of rediscovering its city differently. It forced us to question ourselves, to enrich our offer", says Mr. Trinel. "Tomorrow our tools will be different because we will have tested new things".