Founded in 1945, Les Entreprises du Voyage is the public authorities’ contact for the tourism industry.
In a few figures, it represents: 1,600 companies and over 3,650 sales outlets, 9 regional delegations, 7 regional commissions, 7 technical commissions and 8 delegations.
As you can see, the EDV is a key player in the industry.
Their primary objective is to support business development.
We interviewed Valérie Boned, General Secretary of Les Entreprises du Voyage, to find out more about their position in the face of the current crisis.
Read her answers to our questions below.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and the EDV mission?

I’ve been General Secretary of EdV for two years now, after having worked mainly in a legal capacity for the organization for some time….EdV is an organization that brings together most of the companies in our sector (travel agencies and TOs). Our members are companies of all sizes, from VSEs to SMEs, as well as ETIs and some large international companies operating in France. These companies have traditional physical sales models, but also pure player online agencies. They operate in various segments: leisure, business travel, MICE, events and sales of France. The difficulty, but also the interest, lies in supporting all these companies in their development and competitiveness. In “normal” times, this translates into increasingly sophisticated services that we make available to companies and, of course, their employees (advice, training, legal expertise in various specialties). EdV’s other vocation is to make our business known to politicians and public authorities, so as to make it more familiar, which is far from being the case. This communication takes the form of meetings, contacts and links that the Chairman, Jean Pierre Mas, and I create with our political contacts, related sectors, hauliers, etc….

How did your role and missions evolve during the Covid crisis?

Clearly, these missions, which are sometimes a little opaque for the outside world and for our members too, have taken on their full meaning in this period of crisis.
We had to identify needs, respond to urgent and often desperate questions, reassure and rapidly define a crisis strategy.
This involved the total availability of EdV employees, and the mobilization of elected representatives (from the Board of Directors and the regions).
The stakes were high: to prevent companies from going bankrupt with the cancellation of all scheduled departures during the lockdown, and to maintain customer confidence.
On a personal level, I’d say that our work was one of great listening and availability, which translated into requests for crisis support measures.
It was at this point that we were able to capitalize on all the hard work we’d put in over the last few years.

In addition, we’ve had great cooperation with other organizations, such as SETO, APST and CAT ……

I’d sum it up by saying efficiency, hyper responsiveness and communication.

How did you support tourism brands and companies during the crisis?

We explored and exploited two avenues: talking to our members, and holding remote meetings in our various regions and at national level.
Exchanging and sharing problems and solutions in this time of confinement is fundamental, even today.

We also questioned our members with various questionnaires to find out about their day-to-day lives, and their use of support measures (partial activity, PGE, Solidarity Fund, etc.). This information is vital for arguing our case and highlighting our specific features.

Our obsessive goal has been to be included in the minds of politicians (Gérard Darmanin, Bruno le Maire, Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne) as part of the tourism sector, and we’ve been saying and writing “what about travel agencies?
Our fear is that we won’t be identified in the same way as the hotel and restaurant industry, leisure parks, open-air hotels, etc., which are all part of the local economy.
It’s not a natural reflex in France to think of our sector as a value-added industrial sector.
On this point, the attentiveness and presence we have been allowed to have throughout these months show that we have succeeded.

What were the priority communication topics during the Covid crisis, and what channels were used?

Our priority was to inform the press and our members, but also to reassure our customers lost in the meanders of air law of their obligations.
We endeavored to translate all the new rules in terms of labor law, tax law and the “assets” ordinance.
We were also very reactive in highlighting the sale of “produit France” as soon as we sensed that summer would not get off the ground.

To achieve this, all communication channels were used.
Our digital communication with members, our incessant presence in the media – print, audio and TV – but also campaigns on social networks to raise awareness of French intermediated sales and our added value.

From June 1 to July 31, we ran a Facebook campaign entitled “Toutes vos envies de France sont dans votre agence de voyages” (“All your French desires are in your travel agency”) to encourage the French to book their summer vacations in a travel agency following Covid-19.
This public campaign enabled Les Entreprises du Voyage to raise their profile and promote the travel agent profession.
The results were very positive, with the campaign reaching over 1 million unique visitors and generating 1,954,040 impressions on the publications in just two months.
Les Entreprises du Voyage gained 4,574 new followers on their Facebook page, and the campaign video generated 408,999 views.

What are the priority communication objectives of the post-Covid VDAs?

We’re still in covid, in crisis, unlike other sectors which are in recovery, however weak. For us, this means zero visibility and maximum anxiety….So our challenge is to feel the pulse of our members, identify their needs and do our utmost to ensure the continuation of aid measures… When things get better, and I’m convinced they will – the desire to travel is ingrained in us – it will be up to us to anticipate ways of revitalizing and repositioning our business, drawing on the lessons we’ve learned… We’re already on the job, but now’s not the time to address these points. We remain focused on business survival.

What is EDV’s vision of the tourism sector for the months/years ahead?

The coming months will be very tense, and it’s likely that some of us won’t make it, but as few as possible.

For the more distant future, I am undeniably optimistic.

The final word?

I want our members to know that the Chairman, the elected representatives, the staff and I are fully aware of the issues at stake, and that we have only one objective: to support them.
The other point is that, more than ever, we need to work together to be strong, and even if these are complicated times, I’d like to thank all our members for continuing to join us, so that we can move forward with the necessary means to achieve this goal.