France’s second largest French city included the development of a sustainable tourism at the heart of its strategy, making it a greener city and allowing to preserve its biodiversity.
With 300 days of sunshine and 145 hotels, 20 km of coastline and the amazing Parc National des Calanques, Marseille offers so many opportunities for your future events.
It is well connected with Marseille Provence airport offering a significant range of services with 104 destinations served in the summer and 80 in the winter. It also has a good railway network and connects you to all main cities in France and Europe. Since 2020, Marseille’s main objective is to evolve towards resilient, decarbonized and respectful to the local population systems, by creating a sustainable innovation dynamic for everything going through these 5 ambitions:
• A green tourism : at the service of the environmental performance
• A fluid tourism: on the distribution of flows and seasonalities
• A citizenship tourism: respectful towards the local populations
• An innovative tourism: creator of ressources and employment
• An engaged and solidary tourism: that participates the fight against inequalities
On November 16, 2021, the Marseille Metropolitan Tourism and Convention Office officially obtained the ISO Certification 20121, issued by Bureau Veritas. For the certification process, which began at the start of 2021, Bureau Veritas audited the appropriate departments (leisure and business promotion and communication) in order to ensure that internal procedures were in line with the standard’s principles. Beyond that, the standard is a real company project which concerns all employees and at all levels. The Marseille Metropolitan Tourist Office and Convention Bureau aims to encourage, unite, and support the local tourism ecosystem towards a more responsible tourism, in order to continually improve the quality of the welcome for tourists (both leisure and business) and to make them aware of the challenges of sustainable development in our region. With this approach, the Metropolitan Office has committed to a specific and concrete action plan, including 3 strong short-term initiatives:
The support of Label Clef Verte (Green Key Certification)
This program launched at the start of 2020 and will be rolled out until 2024. It enables tourist accommodations to evolve along 7 major axes of Sustainable Development (water management, awareness, ethical purchasing, etc.) With this project, Marseille proudly plays a leading role as the French city with the most hotels with this certification: 13 in total! A position that is reinforced by the Accor Group to make Marseille its pilot city for the certification of 15 hotels in the metropolis
GDS Index
An integral part of the Metropolitan Office of Tourism, the Metropolitan Convention Bureau, hopes to enter Marseille into the GDS Index 2021: it applies to the events sector and concerns the steps taken by all the socio-professional actors of a destination. At the end of October 2021, during the ICCA congress, Marseille obtained a score of 51%, quite honorable for a first year, especially considering the health crisis. This score’s progression can only be positive in the future.
Urban Transportation
Marseille is on the Géovélo app with 3 detailed routes, and the app gives you the most suitable urban route in real time and specializes and always indicate the most viable bike paths, just like a car’s GPS: dedicated lanes, two-way cycling, shared lanes and peaceful areas.
Marseille has shown its engagement at every level: In keeping with the times and the challenges of this era, Marseille continually seeks to make even more room for development and sustainable tourism. This implies the setting up of sustainable tourist routes at every level, and the mobilization of engaged stakeholders from across the entire tourist ecosystem. Making Marseille a greener city will always be at the top of the city’s agenda, in order to preserve its biodiversity. Furthermore, the Marseille Metropolitan Tourist Office and Convention Bureau has created #marseilleinnovanteetdurable, a hashtag that aims to bring together these engaged communities and to unite their messages and their voices. Additionally, a number of green ideas have already begun to flourish across the Marseille landscape and a multitude of restaurateurs have resolutely turned their attention to the challenges of «eating better»: researching how to minimize their carbon footprint, valorizing local distribution channels and reduced waste, and using organic products as well as sustainable agriculture. The cultural sector has also invested in favour of sustainable development through the opening of the Underwater Museum (Musée Subaquatique) in June 2020, an underwater space that is dedicated to art, marine biology, and environmental protection, and that of the Museum of Maritime Heritage (Musée du Patrimoine Maritime), opening in 2023. A team of experts can help you organize and deliver any type of events and assist you with a range of services, with an eco-responsible approach.
To find out more visit: #InnovativeandSustainableMarseille
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