Bastille Day & I get an 'A'...

...For my Travel and Tourism assignment on Provence - I hope all the information is correct...but who cares I got an 'A' !!!!

Assignment 8 
Select any popular holiday destination and describe what makes that destination popular with incoming tourists.

Overview
In this assignment I will be looking at the area of Provence, southern France to find out what makes this destination popular with tourists.

Introduction
A destination is the end product of a journey and can be a country or an area such as a town, a city or a tourist attraction, for example a theme park or a museum. Provence is a popular choice for visitors and is situated in the south of France. This 25,851 square kilometre area has a population of around 2,603,500 people (Lonely Planet February 2009) and offers the visitor more than one destination.


It’s capital is Marseille, France’s oldest city (founded by the Greeks in 600BC) and the second biggest French city after Paris with a population of over 860, 363 inhabitants as stated on www.Marseille.fr, the official website for the city of Marseille. The city is also France’s largest port situated between the Mediterranean Sea Basin and the southern French countryside. This city attracted around four million tourists in 2010 producing over 700 million euros in revenue and 12,000 jobs within the tourism industry (www.Marseille.fr).

Selling points and visitor attractions
Provence’s main selling points are climate and location situated by the Mediterranean sea, it’s summer months are usually hot and dry with an average temperature of 24°C and mild winters with an average temperature of 8 -9°C. It’s various landscapes can cater for most tourist preferences as Provence’s boarders consists of the French countryside and 57 kilometres of coastline overlooking the Mediterranean sea, and the historical cities of Avignon, Aix-en-Provence, Arles and Marseille draw in visitors who prefer city breaks to the countryside and coast.


Provence covers all types of accommodation from youth hostels to five star hotels. On its official tourism website www.visitprovence.com there are 1280 accommodations listed, they include hotels, bed and breakfasts, camp sites, youth hostels, and self carting holiday homes (gites) and holiday villages suitable for any tourist for example the business traveller staying in a hotel in the business area of Marseille, a student looking for cheap accommdation (youth hostels), a visitor who wants to travel with their dog and wishes to stay in a ‘pets welcome hotel’, to a family staying at a Holiday Resort for example the Village Pont Royal en Provence in Luberon between Aix-en Provence and Avignon which offers acitiviies such as golf, horse riding and children’s clubs.

History and culture is a factor used to sell Provence to the world, its cities, towns and villages have interesting pieces of architecture and history for example the Palais des Papes (Palace of the Popes), a gothic palace built 1335–1364 in Avignon and the town of Salon de Provence who utilises its connection with Nostradamus (famous for his prophecies) who lived and is buried in Salon de Provence. His house is now a museum, and for four days every summer, the city celebrates their connection with him attracting tourists. Arles connection with the painter Van Gogh helps raise the city’s profile, preserving areas and offering tours to where he painted his famous work and the city hosts art exhibitions at the former hospital where Van Gough had his ear stitched back on. With Marseille there is the Chateau d'If, a fortress off the coast of Marseille whose history is linked to Edmond Dantes, the Count of Monte Cristo made famous by Alexandre Dumas book. This multicultural city of 111 quarters offers a wide range of cultural events and places to visit. The city has 17 museums, and 42 theatres plus international events such as: the Foire de Marseille (international trade fair), Fiesta des Suds (world music festival), the International Documentary Film Festival, and the five Continents Jazz Festival. As well as sight sighting, Provence offers other activities such as theme parks, zoos, riding stables, water sports for example diving in Marseille and sailing in Fos de Mer and areas of interest for walking and cycling tours thought the countryside (which the tourist board offers maps and routes).　


Provence’s shopping facilities consist of ‘High Street’ stores avaiable in the bigger cities of Provence and there are American style shopping malls suitated on the outskirts of some of the towns. Also France is famous for it’s markets and Provence’s Bric- a- Bric and second hand stalls can draw in tourists looking for an authentic french souveuir for example: the calissons of Aix en Provence, olive oil from Camargue and lavender products. Also arts and crafts made by local people are a popular choice with tourists and some of the artists advertise their work on www.visitprovence.com.

France is world famous for it gastronomy and specialist cookery holidays are available in Provence for people wishing to learn French cooking for example the holiday company Provence Cooking Tours offers holidays which include cooking lessons, sight sighing and wine tours. Provence’s restaurants range from fast food, bistros, cafes and international food. Each city is different, Marseille has a multicultural variety of restaurants including French, Indian, Antillean, Thai, Tunisian and Italian where has Avignon’s Place de l’Horloge is a group of cafes popular with tourists. Information about the area’s top restaurants rated by one of the four main French good food guides (Michelin, Gault et Millau, Champérard and Bottin Gourmand) can be seen on www.visitprovence.com. Nightlife is mainly situated in the cities, Marseille has a variety of nightclubs, pubs and music cafes were as Aix-en-Provence has a large student population (30,000 students study at the Univerite de Provence Aix Marseille) so some of the bars and restaurants are more affordable and have a large student clientele.


Transport
Twenty seven kilometres northwest from Marseille and twenthy six kilometres south from Aix-en-Provence, Marseille-Provence airport is France’s third busiest airport outside Paris dealing with 7.3 million passengers a year (2009) with direct routes to sixty eight cities in twenty one countries. In September 2006 the airport’s second terminal opened - mp2. This terminal deals with mainly low cost airlines and flights from the UK and Ireland included daily flights to and from London with British Airways, Air France, Easyjet and Ryanair. The airport is easily accessible by road and the airport train station - Marseille Provence Airport Train Station is a five minute drive away and the airport offers a free shuttle bus routes between the station and airport. Forty one trains run daily thought the airport station to various parts of Provence. The airport also offers a daily bus service to and from Marseille train station, Aix-en-Provence and Salon- de- Provence. Marseille St Charles train station which gives easy access to other parts of Provence as well as France and Europe. The TGV train service from Paris only takes three hours and with the Channel Tunnel, Eurostar offers direct routes from London to Avignon during the summer seasons, which is only a thirty mintue train journey away from Marseille.

There are public bus services running in and between Provence’s cities and towns and within Marseille alone there are three public transport networks, two metro lines, two tramway lines and eighty five bus routes and for the tourist who chooses to travel by car there are fifteen public car parks within the city centre.

Marseilles port’s, the Grand Port Maritime main use is for fishing however it is also used as a stop over for cruise ships and is the biggest cruise port in France. In 2009 Marseille welcomed 2.07 million passengers by sea and 630,000 were cruise passengers who travelled on the thirty cruise lines which docked in Marseille, this figure rose to 700,000 in 2010 and is expected to rise to over one million passengers by 2012. As well as the cruise ships and fishing, the port is also used on a daily and weekly ferries from Sardinia, Tunisia and Corsica.

Tourist information

There are around seventy -five tourist information offices in Provence and most cities and towns have a least one office (Marseille and Arles have two). These places have their own websites as well as the smaller areas for example the small commue of Miramas. These websites offer general information on that particular area and include an selection on the tourism and events they offer. With the bigger cities such as Marseille it offers a website dedicated to the city’s tourism. The number of potential visitor using the internet as a source of information when researching a holiday is increasing at a huge pace and these tourism departments have to keep their websites and search engines constantly up to date with future events and current prices.

Conclusion
Provence can cater for any tourist ranging from business travellers, families and tourists wanting a weekend city break. To improve it’s profile in 2013 Marseille will belong the European city of Culture jointly with the Slovak city of Kosice. During this year the city will host a wide range of cultural events, exhibitions, concerts and festivals boosting it’s Marseille’s tourism income. Then in 2016, France will host the European Football Championship and Marseille’s Football Club’s renovated Velodrome Stadium with host 67,00 football fans bringing in more tourists and money to Provence.　

Words 1,508


Bibliography

Books
Lonely Planet - France 8th Edition Published February 2009
Book 5 - Tourist destinations

Websites
http://www.marseille-tourisme.com/
http://www.visitprovence.com/ 
http://www.marseille.fr/
http://www.mrsairport.com/
http://www.sncf.fr/
http://www.avignon-et-provence.com/index-en.html
http://www.provencecookingtours.com/

Numero Sept - leçons de François

There is no point in me dreaming about spending time in France visiting new areas and learning about the country’s history and culture if I don’t speak the language. I might know my Marseilles from my Miramas and my Cantonas from my Ginolas but it’s not going to help when I need to ask for directions or to start a conversation.

I started a beginners course back in September, every Tuesday night. I’m on lesson 24 and slowly understanding the basics ( my French teacher is very patient). I find it easier to understand the French language by reading and writing than speaking, but I think that’s just a lack of confidence. No lesson tonight or next week as it’s Easter holiday, but as my exam is in four weeks, I should be revising instead of blogging…oh well I will revise demain. I welcome any ideas which could help me with my revision.

No seriously, I going to work very hard at mastering the French language or at least string a sentence together. These evening classes are my fourth attempt to learn. First attempt was at school, I hated it and learnt nothing. Second was when Monsieur X tried to teach me and that would turn into an argument ‘its la not le!!’ he would moan and the third attempt was last summer, when I worked in an office on my own, it’s a lot easier talking to a book than murdering the French language in front of a French person.

So I hope my fourth attempt is more successful and with extra help from pod casts, films, listening to Virgin Radio France via my iPhone on my walk to work and my BBC language books (http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/french/ ), they are all petit steps to start off with and I hope at least by the end of the year I can write a blog page in French, without the aid of online translator.