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.

1.2 The European hospitality market

The global hotel market had been growing steadily since **** before beginning to decline in **** and being hit hard by the Covid-** crisis in ****. It is expected to fall by **.*% in ****.

Evolution of the global hotel market World, ****-****, in billions of US$ Source: ****

Urbanization and rising incomes in developing countries such ...

1.3 The tourist accommodation sector in turmoil since the Covid crisis-19

Share of holiday villages in tourist accommodation

The Mémentos du tourisme published annually by the Direction Générale des Entreprises, allow us to obtain a breakdown of the number of visitors to tourist accommodation by type of accommodation, and therefore to approach the share of holiday villages in the ...

1.4 French holiday villages: market size

Holiday villages in France

In France, two types of holiday villages can be distinguished: those with a commercial function, and those involved in social tourism (***). In the Tourism chapter of the **** edition of the Tables of the French economy - Insee, the table below can be found:

Source: ****

* It appears ...

2.1 Holiday village clientele: age, income brackets, CSPs

In ****, UNAT published its Study of holiday village customers. This study is the result of a survey of the target clientele. As the sector has a long history and a well-established clientele, it is still relevant to use this data today. The survey segmented the clientele according to socio-family characteristics:

Families; ...

2.2 Characteristics of the stays: services, activities and loyalty building

Terms and conditions of the stay

On average, the clientele makes *.* tourist stays per year, generally between * and * nights. The survey also reveals the type of services chosen by customers during their stay in a holiday village.

Type of service favoured by the demand during a stay in a holiday village France, ...

2.3 Seasonality of demand

The online tool Google Trends, allows us to obtain the evolution of interest for a given term, based on the number of times this term has been searched for over a given period of time in a defined region. The graph below shows the evolution of interest in the term "Holiday ...

3.1 Holiday Villages on the territory

The reports of the DGE make it possible to establish the distribution of holiday villages in the French territory by region.

This distribution is very uneven and the regions of the south of France are those with the most holiday villages. This distribution follows the demand of tourists who most often ...

3.2 The different structures and main actors

As mentioned earlier, holiday villages are divided between villages participating in social tourism affiliated to UNAT, and villages belonging to private groups. These two types of villages structure the market and each represents a large share of the market. The graph below shows the breakdown as at * January **** and according to ...

3.3 Focus on a market leader in Pierre et Vacances - Center Parcs

Groupe Pierre et Vacances Center Parcs (***)

The group is one of the leaders in France in this sector. The reference document ****/**** of the group carries out a review of its activities. It brings together more than *** sites operated in Europe under * tourism brands, three of which are holiday villages:

Pierre et ...

4.1 Classification of holiday villages

A typology of the offer in the holiday village can be made according to a classification from * to * stars which defines the level of these establishments. This classification is relative to the decree of * July **** setting the standards and the procedure for the classification of holiday villages (***) amended by order of ...

4.2 France offers a great diversity of holiday destinations and villages

The table below is intended to show the great diversity of holiday villages in France. This list is non-exhaustive and is intended to illustrate the current offer of the sector in France.

5.1 Regulations and general definition

Definition of a tourist residence :

article D. ***-* from the tourism code:

"A classified commercial lodging establishment, subject to permanent or seasonal operation. It is made up of one or more individual or collective residential buildings grouped together, in a homogeneous whole, furnished residential premises and premises for collective use. ...

5.2 Quality labels

"Qualité Tourism":

"Qualité Tourisme" is a brand that federates the steps taken by tourism professionals whose objective is quality of service for customer satisfaction. Registered by the Ministry in charge of Tourism, the Qualité Tourisme brand is a guarantee of trust for tourism professionals and their clients.

The "Tourism and ...