Best of the best French hotels paid a visit to Moscow
Directors of14 out 16 French palace-hotels came to Moscow to meet local tour operators and
the media. The meeting is the first of its kind organized by the French Tourism
Development Agency (Atout France). It’s no coincidence that it was held in
Russia. According to the the Agency’s Head, Mr. Christian Mantei, Russian
tourists account for a significant share of France’s most celebrated hotels’
clientele.
In 2013,
about 800 thousand Russian tourists visited France. The plan for the year 2014
is to welcome a million Russians, said minister counsellor Frederic Mondoloni.
“In current situation it’s going to be harder to achieve this result, because of
the political discord and the deceleration of economic growth in Russia. Russia
is a growing market for us. And I can assure you that our top priority is to
increase the number of Russian visitors to France. We have arranged the trip
exclusively to promote our palaces internationally. And our first destination
is Russia” he added.
As was
noted by nearly every palace, Russian guests account for 20-25% of all their
clients. And during the high season (August for seaside hotels and January for
Courchevel) this figure is a lot higher. Despite the downfall of the Russian
tourist flow to France, Heads of the palaces haven’t been reporting any crisis
situation. “We don’t have any decrease in the number of Russian tourists thus
far. We’ll see how the situation is going to unfold at the end of the year,”
said the Director General of the Plaza Athenee Hotel. “The volume of bookings
at our hotel is now at exactly the same level as it was in 2013. It’s only that
the payments are now being made not 1-1.5 years prior to arrival as before, but
closer to check-in date,” added the spokesperson from Courchevel’s Les Airelles.
Her colleague from the K2 Hotel doesn’t have any problems with bookings for the
period from January 1st to 12th, the most popular dates
with Russian tourists: “I think that the crisis hasn’t affected high-end
customers. They keep travelling as they always did.”
In the
evening, the tour operators along with some Russian celebrities were invited to
Moscow’s most prestigious department store to attend a grand party hosted by
Atout France and French palace-hotels. Cocktails, snacks and desserts cooked by
the palaces’ chefs, barmen and confectioners were served to the guests.