History of the website
and Tourism Marketing
in France
Visit France.com
first Domain registration date: data lost, before 1998
new Domain registration date: 15-01-2004
Visit France.fr
Domain registration date:
18-07-1999
(before 11-05-2004 liberalization of .fr domains)
The domain is used as a redirection
to VisitEurope.fr, a website of the Austrian Tour Operator
Visit Europe / Travel Europe
France is the first country
to have created a marketing organisation
for Tourism,
the ONT, Office National de Tourisme
founded in 1910
under the initiative of
Alexandre Millerand (1859 - 1943),
minister of "Travaux Publics"
The first director was Albert
Mahieu.
The brothers
Edouard Michelin (1859 - 1940)
and Andre Michelin (1853 - 1931)
also contributed to develop
the Tourist industry through
the invention of the famous Michelin
Hotel and Restaurant guides.
ONT was in activity until 1935 1917 ONT created une Chambre nationale
de l'Hotellerie Francaise
1935 ONT was replaced by the
"Commissariat de Tourisme".
The next institution was called "Maison
de la France"
They had a prestigeous location
at the corner of 99 Avenue des Champs Elysees
and 48 Avenue Georges V.
Maison de la France contributed
to set up different mesures to protect
historic landmarks and
preservice the beauty of France,
one of the main reason
why the country remains so attractice.
The French Tourist board
initially used the internet domain
FranceGuide.com
for it's web presence
Atout France was founded 22-07-2009
through the merger of
Maison de la France
and ODIT France
The agency
is supervised by a government organisation,
the Ministry of Tourism.
This followed an initiative of Herve Novelle,
secrétaire d'Etat du Tourisme
with the idea to modernise
tourism promotion tools.
The agency has the mission to promote
France as a tourist destination.
As the agency did not yet exist
during the early years of the Internet
they missed the avant-garde
registration of the
iconic web domain
VisitFrance.com
Instead the brand FranceGuide.com
was developped
now rebranded as Atout-France.fr
At the same time Fred Mercaldo,
a visionary web entrepreneur from Arizona, USA
aquired the VisitFrance.com domain.
Mercaldo has an impressive portfolio
of hi profile geo domains
which also includes VisitParis.com
Mercaldo recently sold Visit Egypt.com,
now developed as an Tourist Info Site
by a Travel company.
Visit Domains
and Tourist Boards
in neighbouring countries
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Check out Tourist Information in these countries
