Recently, various media informed about France planning to create its own booking platform to rival the American platforms of Airbnb and Booking.com. The reality however seems to be elsewhere.
"The idea is to be able to make more use of the data set up on DATATourisme, so that tourism stakeholders can take hold of this data, and then create applications and other digital services,” stated Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, Secretary of State for Tourism.
Laurent Queige, President of the Digital Commission of the Tourism Sector Committee and General Delegate of Welcome City Lab, spoke of the same digital purpose: "A better mastery of tourism data". According to him, digital technology should be an "asset for the attractiveness of France".
Over the next few months, the Digital Commission will therefore be working with Caisse des Dépôts on an "interoperable data platform" in the fields of tourism, events, culture and mobility. This is about Data Hub, "to go much further than DATAtourisme", Laurent Queige specified. The boss of the Parisian incubator insisted on the importance for professionals of data interoperability, by defining a common language. His recommendations are expected in November 2020.
"The objective is not at all to launch a French Booking", confirms Laurent Queige, to cut short the rumor. "We are not going to develop a commercial site for France as a destination".
In reality, France wants to move on to phase 2 of DATAtourisme, the French tourism platform created by the DGE and Tourisme & Territoires, which has not delivered all its promises. "Start-ups or other global tourism operators could then use the Data Hub to develop new marketing methods," added the head of the Welcome City Lab.