Mexico to host Congress on French Travel Agencies

23 January 2004 6:00am

France’s Tourism Minister Leon Bertrand and a bunch of CEOs of major travel companies are attending the 45th Congress on French Travel Agencies that got underway Tuesday in Mexico’s Merida.

Within the framework of the event, Mr. Bertrand will meet with Mexican counterpart Rodolfo Elizondo and other French travel professionals, sources close to the organizing committee revealed.

Air France president Jean-Cyril Spinetta, FRAM president Georges Colson and AVIS Car Rental Agency CEO Christian du Tillet are some of the boldface names attending the conclave.

Also in Mexico are Wasteels president Laurent Wasteels and Kuoni Agency president Emmanuel Foiry, two of Europe’s premiere agencies.

The Yucatan Peninsula is holding the Congress on French Travel Agencies in a hope to ramp up the flow of French travelers to Mexico over the next years. Today, as many as 125,000 French sunbathers go to Mexico every year.

More than 800 professionals from France’s leisure industry are attending the event in Mexico, sources close to the nation’s Tourism Bureau in France reportedly said.

As unusual as it might sound, the congress is wavering a couple of questions as slogan: “What Clients For Tomorrow?,” and “What’s The Future Of Travel Agencies?”