Interview with Franck Demortière, Sales Director at Digitrips
Can you tell us more about the history of DIGITRIPS ?
To understand the history of Digitrips, it’s important to remember that it’s first and foremost an amalgamation of skills, knowledge and know-how.
At the outset, several structures coexisted: Misterfly, H-Résa, Koedia… These names may ring a bell, but they are the entities that formed the basis of what became Digitrips. It was their teams, their expertise and their collective energy that gradually shaped the project.
A decisive turning point came with the arrival of Émilie Dumont. She really structured the group, giving a guideline to the various existing “houses”. She played the role of architect and project manager, ensuring the emergence of a common identity – a unified brand.
It was in this convergence that Digitrips was consolidated. The group has structured itself around a multi-product, multi-channel offering, designed to meet the needs of a wide variety of customers: travel agencies, TMCs, works councils, major e-retailers like Cdiscount, and even airports… Today, these customers can be found in France, Belgium, Italy and tomorrow beyond.
International development is based on the same fundamentals as in France, but with a finer selection of products, in order to give priority to those that are most adaptable and competitive on a global scale. In particular, we focus on the dynamic package, i.e. a combination of hotel, car and transfers.
Yes, some of these products are already well represented on the market. But our growth in France shows that there is still room for challengers, especially when you know how to differentiate yourself.
As far as dynamic packages are concerned, we are clearly positioned in the city-break and short-stay segments. Our specialty is urban short breaks, a segment that has been largely under-exploited in recent years, particularly by tour operators. There’s a real opportunity to be seized here, as demonstrated by our success in the e-package segment.
We are currently in the launch phase for the train product, particularly for European City Breaks. This is a real business skill, which we are developing both on a B2B and white-label basis, including abroad. It’s part of our drive to target a wide range of partners, including e-tailers, banks, insurers, airlines and airports
How is Digitrips’ sales organization structured, do you already have an international footprint ?
Our sales organization is structured by market and customer segment, not by product.
Today, we have B2B teams in France, Belgium and Italy. These three zones are organized in much the same way: they cover travel agencies, agency networks, tour operators, TMCs…. These are the three main types of customer we serve.
Tomorrow, we will be structuring an international development division, which will take charge of Italy and support the opening up of new markets. This division will also be responsible for building “reciprocal” contracts with other players in the sector – in other words, two-way partnerships involving the exchange of services or customer portfolios.
What led you to collaborate with IMPACT CONSULTANTS ?
The decision to call on Impact Consultants wasn’t originally mine – it came from Émilie Dumont. But I can certainly explain why the choice was made.
At the time, we were clearly lacking in-house: we were short of manpower, brains and skills. Impact Consultants seemed to us the most appropriate solution to meet this need, with a real knowledge of the markets and the assignments to be carried out.
Then, as we worked together on the SalesFactory project, we discovered that this collaboration enabled us to go even further. It brought to light a need that had not been identified at the outset: that of creating a Sales Operations position in particular. This position didn’t yet exist in our organization. Océane Recorbet is temporarily filling this role, until we are able to recruit the right person to fill it on a permanent basis.
An interview by Océane Recorbet