France

The necessary modernisation of French air transport will involve a sharp reduction in airline activity in January and February 2024, the French Civil Aviation Authority (DGAC) has announced. This is in fact a necessary technological modernisation of a system that has not changed since the 1970s. A new software l...

Meeting in Paris, the Hilton Group's management team for Continental Europe is delighted to announce its debut in Monte Carlo, a destination that the American hotelier has long had its eye on. By the end of 2023, the Columbus hotel is set to become part of the Curio Collection brand, which now comprises almost 150 boutique hotels worldwide. Offering...

The opening up of French regional lines to competition has also been on the cards since December 2019, fanning the flames of interest from Transdev (a subsidiary of the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations), RATP Dev Rail, Régioneo (a joint venture between Getlink and RATP) and Arriva (a subsidiary of DB), all keen to make inroads into the SNCF. In...

The Ministry of Transport, headed by Clément Beaune, confirmed on 26 October at a steering committee meeting organised by the Préfecture du Grand Est: the Metz-Nancy-Dijon-Lyon line will reopen by early 2025, probably when the SNCF winter service is introduced in December 2024. It's a real breath of fresh air...

After Nice and Paris CDG airport, you opened a third hotel in France in Aubervilliers last spring. Are you satisfied with their business? Karim Malak - These openings have been a resounding success, and we're getting up to cruising speed very quickly. The hotel market is doing well, so we've made a big...

Normandy, Brittany, Pays de Loire, Hauts-de-France, Centre-Val de Loire: in these five regions, TER trains will be at a standstill on Thursday 2 November - or even from Wednesday evening until Friday morning. The storm Ciaran is forcing SNCF Réseau to introduce this radical measure: the preventive stoppage of rail traffic. The measure, known as "stop...

At least business travellers will have time to plan their business trips in advance. Caen Airport has just announced that it will be closed from 11 March. The reason for the closure: runway upgrading work to bring the airport into line with European certification, which is due to be completed by the end of...

Air travel could be disrupted this Wednesday following the evacuation of six French airports on the morning of 18 October. The airports of Beauvais, Lille, Lyon (Bron), Nantes, Nice and Toulouse are affected, with varying levels of disruption. Threats of attack have reportedly been sent by email to staff at certain hubs, according to the...

The news came on Wednesday, in a completely official statement from the airline: Air France will indeed be leaving Orly. The timetable drawn up by Air France management has made 2026 the pivotal year for turning this page in history. By this date, the airline plans to operate all its flights...

Unsurprisingly, the 46th edition of KPMG's annual survey of the French hotel industry gives a positive assessment of business in France. Despite the relative absence of Asian tourists, largely offset by a still solid domestic market and the contribution made by customers from North America and the UK, the French hotel industry is on the up...

The Paris Convention and Visitors Bureau has just unveiled a study packed with information. The Managing Director of Paris je t'aime makes the first observation in her introduction: "2022 marks a return to a situation close to normal for conventions in the Paris Region", Corinne Menegaux sums up. The figures are...

The IFTM Top Résa event closed its doors on Thursday evening, at the end of three days rich in information for professionals in the sector. Alongside the presentation of the first Meetings & Events barometer published by Kactus, another study looked at the major trends in business travel. Based on...

New York's ban on renting out entire homes on a short-term basis is certainly a wake-up call for private rental platforms. Indeed, many critics of this participatory economy model accuse platforms like Airbnb of drying up the rental market. In the United States, there is a lot of talk about...

Guillaume Confais-Morieux, the SNCF's Travel Agencies Market Director, was all smiles when he unveiled the results for business traffic at the IFTM Top Resa tourism trade fair. "While 2022 was a record year for leisure travel, 2023 saw a recovery in business traffic, with a small increase in the number of business travellers....

The government's budget announcement of a special tax on airports (as well as on motorway concession companies) should inevitably result in higher air fares. The government estimates that this green tax will bring in €600 million a year. This sum will be allocated to modernising the network...

Antoine Dupont, Jonathan Sexton, the Barrett brothers, Eben Etzebeth, Owen Farrell... Business travellers who are rugby fans may come across one or other of these big names when they travel to France. All 20 teams have set up base camps in a number of hotels. An establishment like the Relais...

If even the Dutch get involved... Among the team-building activities offered by the hotels of the Dutch Bilderberg group, the haka features prominently. From New Zealand to Zeeland, from the homeland of the Maoris to the other land of cheese - but certainly not rugby! - the vibrations of...

Founded in Strasbourg, the Plainitude events agency has changed latitude in recent years, setting its sights on Toulon, its new home in 2022. Local fervour and the agency's tenuous link with the world of sport have led it logically into the world of rugby. Plainitude is now the link between the...

Temples of rugby during the weekend, France's rugby stadiums also vibrate - differently - during the week. As well as the grandstands that naturally allow them to host large-scale events, these multi-purpose venues invest in more exclusive areas. Here's a six-stop tour of France, before finishing with a...

Last March, your Group symbolised the handover from Frédéric Oudéa to Slawomir Krupa at the head of the Executive Board with a rugby match in the salons of the Stade de France. Was this a coincidence? Katia Lazarew - The date of the France-Wales match did indeed coincide with...