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Public transport vs. private car (Round 1) : Focus Cars Express Interurbains France is embracing a major turning point: boosting collective and eco-friendly intercity transport to continue dethroning the dominance of personal cars. Personal cars reign supreme on the roads, but as environmental challenges intensify, this model shows its economic and ecological limits: maintenance costs, carbon footprint, city congestion… In this context, express coaches come into play for intercity trips, embodying an innovative and bold response to current issues. For reference, the Île-de-France region decided at the end of 2023 to create 45 new lines by 2030, and a new express coach line “430” was created between Bordeaux and Blaye, benefiting from a reserved lane on the A10 and on the Aquitaine Bridge. This solidifies a dynamic of improving territorial public services and user service more generally around three fundamental criteria that we want to systematically follow: Cost per kilometer: Compared to the average occupancy rate, the personal car imposes an average cost between €0.19 to €0.4 per kilometer depending on the model. On the other hand, express coaches, thanks to their optimized economic model, incur a cost between €0.03 and €0.05 per user, depending on the trips and services offered. CO2 footprint per kilometer: While a gasoline car emits about 75g of CO2 per kilometer, express coaches, equipped with less polluting technologies and sharing trips among several passengers, drastically reduce this footprint, estimated at 29.33g per passenger. Passenger satisfaction: While the car offers unmatched flexibility, express coaches, with their onboard services (WiFi, electrical outlets, seat comfort) and their punctuality (a coach every 20 minutes during peak hours between Bordeaux and Blaye), rewrite the rules of the game in terms of comfort and practicality. In conclusion, for a decarbonized future, France must intensify and diversify its intercity transport offer. Express coaches are not an end in themselves, but the beginning of a broader revolution in our way of conceiving travel. They lay the groundwork for a future where mobility is shared, ecological, and adapted to everyone’s needs. Are you ready to embark on this adventure towards a more sustainable and connected future? The debate is open! Impact Consultants, Paul de Rosen and Yvanna Mbianda (with AI) Sources : WWF France. (n.d.). Le prix de revient au kilomètre d’un véhicule, qu’est-ce que c’est ? Récupéré sur WWF France. France Mobilités. (n.d.). Évaluation cars express – Version finale. Récupéré sur francemobilites.fr. Share this page

THE RIGHT TIME TO JUMP THE TRAIN – MORE COMPETITIVE, MORE CONNECTED, MORE INTEGRATED The dawn of the 1990s marked a major turning point in Europe: the opening of the rail sector to competition, driven by the European Commission with the aim of creating an integrated and competitive European railway market. Today, the challenge remains the same: to triple rail travel by 2050, while currently, rail traffic stands at 6%. The United Kingdom, which was a pioneer in this regard, underwent a tumultuous transformation, shifting a sector previously dominated by public entities. This transformation was marked by challenges, including fluctuating fares, security concerns, and managerial complexity. The Promise of a Sustainable Future At the heart of this reform, decarbonizing transportation emerges as a priority. With only 1.2% of greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs), compared to 25% for road transport and 12% for aviation and maritime, rail becomes the champion of ecology in the transportation sector. Competition stimulates investment in green technologies, aligning the railway sector with global climate goals. A Race towards Innovation and Competitiveness In France, the opening of the rail market to competition in December 2020 saw the entry of new operators. SNCF (French National Railway Company) is now facing competition from Spain’s Renfe and Italy’s Trenitalia Paris-Lyon-Milan routes, leading to a 58% increase in traffic in just eight months. This renewal is accompanied by diversification of services and a stimulating fare war, forcing SNCF to rethink its offerings, especially in its business segment, with a focus on providing privileged services such as complimentary beverages or meal delivery at the seats. The customer experience has been enhanced: service quality, comfort, connectivity, and frequency of trips are now the key drivers of this competition-driven growth. But that’s not all: the opening of the rail market is disrupting the distribution sector as well. The rise of distribution platforms like Rail Europe, expanding across Europe, exemplifies this digital revolution by simplifying access to offers and enabling end-to-end multi-operator journeys and interrail pass offers. SNCF Connect is also evolving rapidly, innovating its communication with a personalized and quirky annual report called « Ma Rétrainspective. » After business travel agencies, tourism agencies are adapting by incorporating railways into their packaged offerings, and some are even creating specific train-related products. Distribution tools are evolving as well; for instance, Resaneo is innovating with a dynamic package engine that allows real-time combination of various travel components, including train tickets. Quartier Libre is enriching its digital experience with the Open Package tool, offering increased flexibility in creating tailor-made journeys. Customer demand for eco-friendly products is driving the creation of new products and the development of specialized agencies like Discovery Train. This progress in travel tech is opening up unprecedented opportunities, making the opening of the rail market a true catalyst for innovation. The digital era is opening up unexplored horizons for the railway sector. The return of night trains, startups like Le Train, and even investments from hospitality players like Accor with the Orient Express are changing the landscape. From hyperloop to autonomous trains and interconnectivity, the horizon knows no bounds. These advancements could accelerate further with a french government investment plan of 100 billion euros over twenty years, announced in 2023, promising a railway revolution on par with the ambitions of the 21st century. Share this page

TOURISM – THE (NEW) SENSE OF CELEBRATION? The health episode represented a shock of unprecedented magnitude for the whole of society by confining individuals at home for several months. Today, to meet the very strong need for collective experiences lived in reality, amusement parks write a new grammar of escape that combines tourism and entertainment. Some have, and it’s a success. In two short years, the pandemic has given a tremendous boost to digital. According to the Digital Report 2022 for France produced by the agency We Are Social and the Hootsuite platform, French people connect 5h34 every day, including 2h19 on their smartphones.  In detail, our citizens spend more than 21 hours a month on TikTok, an increase of 22% since last year, spend 13 hours a month on Facebook, and almost 12 hours on YouTube. On a daily basis, more than 89% of 16-64 year olds watch streaming TV programs for more than 3 hours. These figures represent a very significant increase. In the post-crisis period, the tourism sector must cope with the multiplication of online entertainment channels and an ever more intensive use of digital tools. Is the Virtual Stronger Than the Real? Not if You Look at Concerts and Festivals! However, even as the attention economy encourages people to stay at home, the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us that video and digital experiences can never fully replace human contact. At the end of the lockdown period, a survey showed that 93% of French people were missing events. Living through a screen is not satisfying for anyone, and it’s even less so for the new generation that craves interactions with others and the blending of cultures. Currently, concerts and cultural events are attracting larger and larger audiences. For example, the 2022 edition of the Parisian festival « Solidays » set an all-time attendance record with over 247,000 spectators over three days. The same trend is seen at the Breton festival « Les Vieilles Charrues, » which attracted 224,000 festivalgoers from July 14 to 17, 2022. The Real Power of Emotion The need to come together in the physical world has never been stronger. In an entertainment world dominated by digital experiences, physical and collective experiences are now emerging as rare, coveted, unifying, and inspiring events. Sharing emotions with others has become a phenomenon with a strong attraction. The New Deal for Escapism Amusement parks are the perfect place to collectively experience intense and memorable experiences, whether with family or friends. They are increasingly popular among vacationers. In May 2022, a survey conducted by Qualimétrie, a marketing research firm specializing in customer experience, revealed that 75% of French people with children were considering visiting these parks during their vacations. Their success lies in bridging the worlds of entertainment and tourism, offering both spectacular and enriching experiences. Successful New Physical and Collective Experiences For instance, PortAventura, located in Barcelona, offers visitors six completely immersive worlds to explore, from Mexico to China to the Wild West, along with over forty different attractions and more than forty daily shows! The same can be said for Futuroscope, with a focus on science, featuring robots, Mars exploration, and tornado chasing. Today, amusement parks represent the quintessence of these new physical and collective experiences, which can also be enhanced by digital technologies. Virtual reality has the capacity to amplify the real without entirely replacing it. For all these reasons, amusement parks have become complete tourist destinations that blend escapism and entertainment. They give a new meaning to celebration. Impact Consultants supports them in their development and promotion, so they are perceived as particularly innovative, attractive, and tailored to the needs of strong emotions and authentic family experiences, which will never disappear! Rodolphe Lenoir – Co-founder, Impact Consultants For more information on the Business Climate Convention, click here! Share this page

counsel engaged What matters to us is the #impact of our missions to our customers, and their return. Here is the support for the commercial implementation of the investment plan of 300 M euros of the Futuroscope realized with our partner N&C. For 2022 more than ever, we are committed to our clients. At Impact Consultants, we have a vision of committed advice:#Caring because we are not here to judge you, we know the difficulties you may face having experienced them from within.#Direct and transparent because we say what we think is not always what you want to hear! But always in the perspective of confronting reality to move forward.#Committed because we are ready to support you for every challenge you face with operational solutions and not just theoretical ones. What we recommend, we are committed to achieve, if you wish. At the service of the #result, and we are ready to bet a part of our remuneration on the good achievement of your objectives Discover IMPACT CONSULTANTs here Share this page

Mobility data: a gold mine for making the right decisions, and following them Infrastructure and mobility decisions play a crucial role in our daily lives. They have an impact on our ability to move, reach our destinations and interact with our environment. In order to make these decisions more relevant, effective and conducive to a better customer and citizen experience, it is essential to rely more on data on collective mobility usage and also those from private vehicle users, whose use remains largely (too much?) dominant. Especially when the time comes to reduce autosolism in individual cars. The collection and activation of usage data, with Origins – Destinations (OD) in focus, is an invaluable mine to understand the movement patterns of local populations or visitors. These data therefore include the points of departure and arrival, the routes taken, the travel times and especially by deepening the preferences of users for all or part of their journeys. By analyzing this information, decision makers can identify the busiest areas, peak hours and bottlenecks in the transport network. This allows infrastructure investments to be targeted more accurately, focusing improvements where they are most needed. But also the right chains of multimodal offers, with relay car parks, good incentive pricing and the most suitable communication campaigns, etc. Finally, this data must allow us to achieve, at the best possible cost, what we all aspire to: an accessible customization of the transport offer. And for the decision-makers of local authorities and companies, to achieve an improvement of what can be called the Decision-Makers Experience for decision-making and the follow-up of decisions taken regarding the mobility of citizens and employees. Impact Consultants and Mobility Metrix are joining forces to meet this challenge: help local players use and activate their accessible and regulatory customer data (GDPR) to better drive their mobility policies. Winning this challenge involves: An inventory of locally accessible data and the best organization to make them actionable in a practical, regulatory and also ecological way (fingerprint under control) Good procedures for the collection and “sourcing” of additional data in particular concerning the uses of individual vehicles The right restitution to make this data useful to the decision The right discipline and tools to track the results of decisions and train the following Contact us to talk about your mobility issues and ambitions, your data contains part of the solution. Laurent@mobility-metrix.com  Paul@impactconsultants.eu Share this page

WHAT PLACE OF CHATGPT IN THE TRAVEL AND TOURISM SECTOR? For professionals, ChatGPT presents several opportunities. For example, it can be used by a tourism office to search for and compile all the must-see sites in its area. Airlines, hotels, and rental agencies can use it to provide their agents with a wider range of answers to various questions. The tool can also be used as a travel assistant by travel professionals. Leading the way, alongside Kayak, the flight and airfare price comparison platform, is the TMC Navan, Trip.com, and numerous companies on the waiting list to test the ChatGPT plugin, the American travel company Expedia was the first in the industry to install a ChatGPT plugin. Additionally, with the launch of the test phase of a new travel planning experience in collaboration with ChatGPT on their mobile application, individuals with an Expedia account can have an open conversation to seek advice on their upcoming trips. That’s not all! By installing the plugin, Expedia claims to simplify the booking process, assist customers in emergency situations, and even enhance its ability to detect fraudulent activities. « By integrating ChatGPT into the Expedia app and combining it with our other AI-based shopping features, such as hotel comparison, flight price tracking, and travel collaboration tools, we can now offer travelers an even more intuitive way to create their perfect trip, » says Peter Kern, Vice President and CEO of Expedia Group. Expedia guarantees a « smart shopping » experience. Will AI replace travel agents? This is the question on the minds of internet users. Among the professions that may disappear with the expansion of AI, customer service agents are at risk, especially since OpenAI claims it can replace 5 million jobs in the United States alone. In France, ChatGPT could address the issue of a shortage of staff in travel agencies. Even though it is still in its testing phase, with the help of AI, Expedia has already assisted over 30 million travelers and saved 8 million hours of work for agents. However, it is essential to emphasize that despite the advantages offered by artificial intelligence and tools like ChatGPT, humans retain a crucial role in the tourism industry. Travelers often appreciate the personal interaction, warmth, and expertise of a travel agent. These professionals can offer personalized advice, understand the specific needs of travelers, and provide a human dimension that cannot be fully replicated by AI. Therefore, while AI technologies like ChatGPT can improve the efficiency and convenience of travel processes, it is crucial to strike a balance between automation and human interaction to provide a comprehensive and satisfying travel experience. Questions related to user data usage and privacy protection must also be considered. ChatGPT continuously collects and analyzes users’ personal data. Users must be aware of potential risks and take steps to protect their privacy when interacting with AI technologies. Businesses must comply with data protection regulations and be transparent about how data is used, stored, and shared. By integrating strong security and privacy protocols and providing clear options for data consent and control, companies can build user trust and promote responsible and ethical use of AI in the travel and tourism sector. Additionally, it’s important to remember that ChatGPT remains limited in its ability to verify the accuracy of online information and may have bugs. Furthermore, its limitations in accessing data, especially in its free version, which does not have access to data beyond 2021, should not be forgotten. Like any digital advancement, ChatGPT will indeed profoundly change our ways of working. Some professions may disappear, while others will emerge. In any case, the promises of efficiency and simplicity offered by the tool seem to indicate that ChatGPT has great potential to be the future of the travel and tourism industry, without neglecting the importance of human interaction. It’s up to industry players to reinvent themselves: online travel agencies (OTAs) did not kill traditional travel agencies but forced them to enhance their value-added services. The travel agent profession is alive and well today! Share this page

JOP 2024: A HOSPITALITY TEST TO WIN The JOP 2024 will also be a test of hospitality and an opportunity to optimize the customer/ visitor experience and make it a reference. We know that this will be the case for athletes, with or without disabilities, who are the subject of organization and prevention. The real stake is next to = make this event a tourist success for all 16 million expected tourists where hospitality, conviviality, security and happiness will be at the rendezvous.It is also the stake for us, French residents that this event does not alienate us and on the contrary strengthens our criticized hospitality. With more than 75 million visitors in 2022, France is the world’s leading tourist destination. The JOP will generate a surplus of visitors that France and its residents must assume, not only through infrastructure and organization but also through hospitality services. At IMPACT CONSULTANTS we participate in this dynamic by accompanying technological hospitality solutions in order to ensure their deployment to the greatest number . Technologies that recognize the vital needs, the «special needs» of tourists and visitors, amplified by the effects of crowds and stress that go with Major Events: need for information, need for mobility, need for security and need for assistance in order to be able to reduce latent or proven worry factors and soothe the mind and enjoy the stay. These technologies include Visitmoov, which automatically generates tailored tour itineraries adapted to mobility constraints and possibilities; Affluences, which tracks, predicts, and provides information about crowd conditions in transportation and visitor locations; Ezymob, which guides people with disabilities through mobility obstacles and public places; and Rewind, which enhances the support and guidance provided by audio guides. All of these technologies possess significant technological advantages, and their initial deployments have been noteworthy. Ezymob has been used during the World Para Athletics Championships in Paris from July 8 to 17, 2023. Rewind has been employed with visitors at the Grand Aquarium in Paris and on tourist buses in Lyon and Marseille. Visitmoov has been implemented in partnership with the Nice Metropolis to identify and model tourist flows. Additionally, there is the French startup Wever, which, drawing from its experience in France and Switzerland, addresses the issue of perceived insecurity by developing a companion service for tourists who may feel isolated. The keys to the upcoming months for these technologies to fully fulfill their mission of enhancing hospitality will be: Personalizing and improving the customer experience, with a focus on a humanized and capable user experience (in the visitor’s language). Easier integration into existing platforms, whether they are interoperable platforms like tourism office websites or single-operator platforms like those of museums, hotels, or transportation providers. Integration should be a matter of days rather than months. Widespread deployment, accessible to a broad range of users, from major attractions to local sites and hotels, through various platforms. These three priorities for the « before » period are guiding the support provided by IMPACT CONSULTANTS. In turn, these technologies will become tools of hospitality that event organizers, accommodations, transportation providers, as well as local residents, ambassadors, helpers, and passersby in France will be happy to have at their disposal to enhance their hospitality. Share this page