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31st July 2010
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Tourism, gîtes and chambre d’hôtes - reality checkThinking of moving to France and making a living from tourism? That’s the dream of many would-be downshifters and early retirees – to buy a large house for conversion to Chambre d’hôtes or a range of buildings suitable for a gîte complex.Once upon a time this might have been a low-risk option. After all the British, Dutch and Americans have been coming to visit France for years and staying in self-catering houses and cottages. But now the market seems to be changing - FrenchEntrée.com has been looking at the trends which may affect you. The French tourism market The good news is that France is still the world’s number one holiday destination with 75 million visitors per year. That’s an impressive number - but the trends have been going in the wrong direction. France is losing market share globally and as far as Brits are concerned Spain became the number one destination in 2002. Spain has grown it’s share, not through the traditional sun and sand holiday but by clever marketing of the cities, the culture and more upmarket attractions, often inland and providing an alternative appeal to the costas. This has been reinforced by the opening up of many new regional airports. Meanwhile across the border in France, according to Léon Bertrand the Minister for French Tourism: “we have always thought we were the best and have rested on our laurels. At the same time we have underestimated the value of tourism to the economy”. Now the French tourist industry is trying to address these issues with new initiatives to create more “deluxe” tourism and the allocation of more marketing money on the promotion of short break holidays. France has also seen a marked growth in 2004 in the number of visitors from America, Australasia and the Far East, including Japan and China. After a huge drop in American visitors caused by the Iraq effect and a falling dollar, hoteliers and other tourism business owners will be pleased to see US visitor numbers up 20% to July 2004 according to official figures. (But note that these are still 20% lower than in 2002). With recent tourism agreements signed between France and China, and a Chinese delegation being given the red carpet treatment in September 2004, the French expect to see Chinese visitor numbers increase dramatically over the next few years. With such an abundance of different landscapes, famous cities, unique history, culture and gastronomy France is never going to lack tourists. Nevertheless, the patterns are clearly changing as holiday-makers can discover great food, quality accomodation and interesting attractions all over Europe with increasingly easy travel and booking options. The challenge is on. See French Tourism Ministry for latest news, facts and figures (in French) So what kind of picture does this paint for the prospective gîte or B&B owner? Unfortunately while the French Tourism office wants to improve the figures it is unlikely to be spending money in your direction. Gîte rental has a tradition of being a somewhat “laissez-faire” private activity – historically the farmer rents out his spare cottage for a few francs in the summer thereby catering for a traditional French family holiday in the countryside. Now of course it is much bigger business, rules are in place, standards are being driven up and there is lots of competition for the British, Dutch and non-French holiday-makers who tend to pay more then the French. The French ministry wants to see more Americans and Japanese because they spend proportionately more while they are here – but they are here to visit Paris, the Côte d’Azur and the big attractions, not to enjoy the rural charms of your converted barn. Likewise, money spent on short-break promotions will benefit holiday hotels in cities and coastal resorts but is unlikely to help the fledgling Chambre d’hôtes business. Anecdotal evidence Meanwhile on the ground the story is still patchy. After a bumper year in 2002 the gîte business in 2003 was generally poor. Everyone has been hoping for an upturn in 2004. Now in September 2004 we’ve taken some soundings from owners and the picture is pretty mixed. Owners in Normandy have reported quite a good season boosted by the D-Day celebrations and commemorative events. But with ever more gîtes chasing holiday-makers the market has reached saturation in some areas – some of the big property letting companies will no longer take large family gîtes with pools onto their books in the Dordogne because they simply have too many already and can’t satisfy the owners already on their books. Côte d’Azur bookings do not appear to have rebounded to 2002 levels. Owners of some family-sized properties in parts of Poitou-Charentes have seen just a few weeks booked when they would normally expect a minimum 6-8 weeks. One couple received an early booking for a week in February which sadly turned out to be the only week booked so far in 2004! Some of the more established and upmarket properties have reported 10-14 weeks but for these that represents a down-turn from previous years. Owners also say that bookings have come in later and later. On a more positive note some gîte owners find they can let their properties for several weeks out of season as the property buying mania shows no sign of running out of steam yet and house-hunters or imminent movers need places to stay – good for B&Bs too. Another ray of sunshine comes from people who own smaller properties suitable for couples. Couples have high disposable income, more leisure time, can hop on a plane from any number of regional airports and be cosied up in your cottage or B&B within a few hours. If you have some local attractions throughout the year it seems you could expect bookings at almost anytime. Contrast this to the typical family visitors who want sunshine, a swimming pool, three or four bedrooms and all between mid-July and the end of August. The way forward So if the influx of Americans and Far Eastern visitors won’t help the gîte and B&B owner what else can you do to minimise your risk and maximise your chances of success? Take at look at the FrenchEntrée.com Gîte Business Topic for starters. According to Tim Williams, Topic Host: “It seems that many people have been lured by a daily diet of TV programmes extolling the virtues of French life into thinking that it’s easy to make a living running a gîte complex. Whilst it is true that many gîte owners can and do make a reasonable living, it needs careful planning, determined marketing and realistic financial expectations. Anyone thinking of moving to France really should take advice from those in the know before embarking on a major life change.” One theme that comes through strongly is the importance of quality, location and marketing – always important but now perhaps the potential difference between failure and success. If people are spoiled for choice they will go for the nicest looking property in the most interesting and accessible area. Discussion forums on the topic such as this one are full of earnest debate about the relative merits of one marketing approach vs. another or the types of service, fixtures and fittings clients expect. To do these things properly - to invest in stylish, good quality furniture, to spend some significant money on advertising or web marketing, get professional photos taken etc. requires some serious time and financial investment. Add to this the recent additional costs of swimming pool security and new fosse septique regulations and it’s no wonder some people who’ve been in the business for years are selling up – a scan through estate agents listings reveal a large number of gîte complexes for sale. But there are at least sufficient success stories around to suggest that these investments will pay off if the owners take a professional approach. Of course it will also help to have a decent reserve budget and a bit of business acumen. If you intend to rely on this business for your living take note: it seems like the days of doing up a couple of barns or an old house, sticking it in a holiday lettings brochure or a B&B guide and watching the bookings flow in are well and truly over. FEEDBACK Want to comment on this article? We value all helpful feedback. If you simply want to let us know about something related to this article please email feedback@frenchentree.com. If you have something you would like to contribute please follow the instructions on our Gîte Business and don’t forget to mention which article you are referring to at the top of your text. Thank you. Site Map FrenchEntrée.com Home Page Property Buyer`s Guide Home Page Looking for a property in France? Use FrenchEntrée's Property Finders to help you find your property and to help you through the buying process 
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