the holiday village market | France

1.1 Definition and scope of study

A holiday village is a tourist establishment that welcomes holidaymakers for long or short stays. Families are welcomed in the form of a package (accommodation, catering, or individual means of preparing meals, leisure activities). Two types of holiday villages exist in France:

• Managed by social tourism associations (affiliated with UNAT);
• Managed privately by business entities (Pierre et Vacances);

The players in the French market are the players of social tourism, groups managing holiday villages and tourist accommodation sites, networks of independent players, and specialised online booking platforms.

The French market is concentrated and has been stable for several years. The players are divided between holiday villages with associative status (or involved in social tourism), and private players whose aim is to make a profit. The former seek to make tourism more accessible and more responsible and achieved a turnover of EUR 421 million in 2018.

The Covid-19 pandemic had a major impact on the business. Reservations were slowed and the sector suffered from government restrictions. Business revenues in April 2020 fell by 83.7%.

Private players are driving the growth of the market, and are constantly investing in new types of accommodation: more sustainable, more coherent with the landscape and aiming for better waste management. After a phase of market concentration, the market seems to have reached maturity, the competition between the actors drives for differentiation of the offer and it takes place on websites and marketplaces which are the showcases and shops of the sector.

Demand is split between French and international customers, and French holiday villages still benefit from the attraction of foreigners to the country. In addition, the clientele of the holiday villages is a rather old and family clientele with a good loyalty rate and a fairly strong purchasing power.