France Global Reps

B World Communication

28 rue de l’Amiral Hamelin, 75116 Paris – France

September 2026 Summary

September brought significant air access news for France. Air France is launching direct Paris–Nashville service and Icelandair is adding Paris–St. Louis via Iceland, both starting in May 2027. Trade activity rose to 14 meetings and 60 agents trained, and coverage reached more than 5.2 million impressions.

France Year-End Report FY25-26

France remained a strong and resilient market for Travel South USA in FY25–26, with nearly 1.59 million French visitors to the U.S. in 2025 and more than 70% of French U.S. travelers identified as repeat visitors. Interest increasingly centers on authentic, meaningful experiences—particularly music, gastronomy, history, festivals and culture—areas that align closely with the South’s strengths. Distribution is also well established, with 130 tour operators, retail networks and online platforms offering more than 1,150 Travel South USA products.

Marketing Strategy

France remains the U.S.’s ninth-largest and Europe’s third-largest inbound market, with nearly 1.6 million visitors in 2025 and an average repeat-visitation rate of 74%. French travelers increasingly seek authentic, meaningful travel experiences, a fit that plays directly to Travel South USA’s strengths in music, gastronomy, history, festivals, and culture.

The market is already well established, with 130 tour operators, retail networks, and online platforms selling roughly 1,150 South-related products, alongside strong recent trade and media traction (agent training, tour operator meetings, and a healthy newsletter engagement rate) and a substantial volume of earned media coverage and impressions over the past year. Managed through a shared-services model with representative B World Communication, the FY26-27 strategy focuses on sustaining this visibility as competition for international travelers intensifies, with U.S. peer destinations increasing their own marketing investment.

Tactics span three integrated pillars. Trade activity centers on tour operator meetings and targeted product development, agent trainings and webinars, monthly trade newsletters, and Visit USA France membership benefits (rotating state features, e-learning modules, workshops, and the Air France/KLM/Delta Training Day), plus recruitment for the Travel South International Showcase in Nashville and ongoing B2B roadshows with regional distribution partners such as Jetset Voyages and Visiteurs. PR and media efforts include monthly press releases and media newsletters, one-to-one media meetings built around TSUSA’s core content pillars, continued cultivation of relationships with top-tier French travel, lifestyle, and food outlets, and recruitment for the 2027 Global Media Marketplace in Bentonville. Social media activity is anchored in monthly French-language content (roughly nine to eleven posts) across Instagram and Facebook built around food, music, culture, road trips, outdoor activity, and festivals, supplemented by paid Meta amplification and an emerging influencer ecosystem of macro, niche, and passion-driven creators.

Strategic goals for the year include increasing Travel South USA’s presence within broader USA itineraries, encouraging multi-state combinations that give repeat visitors reason to return, diversifying product types to match emerging trends such as slow travel and sustainability-minded and special-interest travel, and deepening core-pillar expertise among specialist tour operators and retail sales forces. Out-of-scope opportunities under consideration include a partnership with Reworld Media’s Marmiton and Grazia titles built around culinary storytelling with integrated booking links, and a targeted press trip with GEO Magazine tracing the Mississippi River through Missouri, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana. No budget figures are included despite detailed budget breakdowns in the source presentation.