Patricia Tartour: What makes us special is our ultra-specialisation. The term \"specialist\" is a bit overused in the world of tourism. For La Maison de la Chine, it's a reality: we only work with people who are highly specialised in the destination, recruited in particular from universities, people who know the subject inside out and can move on to an operational vision. We are the only ones who can talk about China in its entirety, its classical civilisation as well as its current ferment, which is reflected in the conferences and exhibitions we organise on our premises. Travel is a living thing, and it's important that customers make up their minds based on what they see and hear. China can't be the same for everyone.<\/p>\n
P. T.: For 2006, revenues of 14 million euros out of total sales of 40 million euros generated by the seven Houses that make up the Group*. Of course, China remains our number one destination, with growth prospects that are still promising. Other destinations are also enjoying strong growth this year, including Vietnam, Burma and Japan.<\/p>\n
P. T. : This idea came about because we didn't have a unifying entity to deal with the requests from the different Houses. This is all the more useful as companies often hesitate between several destinations. Events By is therefore a structure for receiving requests, which will then be put into practice by drawing on the skills of the various Houses. We have already organised some spectacular events, notably in China, such as the first auction of contemporary art in the Forbidden City with Sotheby's, a picnic on the Great Wall or a gala evening at the Chinese Parliament for Cardin. For these events, the networks built up by the different Houses are a tremendous asset: to give an event a high profile, I know how to get a minister to come to Brazil, just as in China I know how to get the 50 journalists who count...<\/p>\n
P. T. : I'm a great believer in individual responsibility in this area, and we encourage our customers, both leisure and corporate, to adopt a less predatory and less lazy approach to tourism. We have been associated with UNESCO for several years now, in the past more to do with safeguarding cultural heritage, and today more to do with training and funding programmes to integrate local populations into tourism development. In China, we have the support of the authorities, who are pushing hard for the development of this type of approach. This could be of particular benefit to emerging tourist regions such as Anhui.<\/p>\n
*NDLR: Houses of China, Latin America, the United States, Orientalists, India, Indochina and Africa.<\/p>\n
1975: First trip to China.<\/p>\n
1977: Studied Mandarin and became a freelance tour guide.<\/p>\n
1983: Joins the Asia department of Carrefour des Voyages.<\/p>\n
1991: Founds the Maison de la Chine, followed by the Maison de l'Indochine (1992), the Maison des Indes and the Maison des Orientalistes (1995), the Maison des Am\u00e9riques latines (1996), the Maison des \u00c9tats-Unis (2001) and the Maison de l'Afrique (2006).<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
How would you define the originality of La Maison de la Chine compared with a \"traditional\" agency? Patricia Tartour : First and foremost, we are ultra-specialised. The term 'specialist' is a bit overused in the world of tourism. For La Maison de la Chine, it's a reality: we only work with people who are highly specialised in [...].<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5425,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1017],"type-darticle":[51],"n_magazine":[],"class_list":["post-5423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-non-classe","tag-decideur","type-darticle-interview","vapo-free"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n