FRANCE | LAURENCE JÉGOUZO 161 a) Promotion and definition of tourism policies in France By entrusting it with this mission, the State is giving Atout France a strategic role: that of promoting the entire tourist territory and the destination France in accordance with the guidelines set by the State. This role, which traditionally belongs to the State, is therefore a real delegation of public service to this operator. As stated in Article L. 141-2 of the French Tourism Code, Atout France must provide the State, local authorities and private or associative partners with its expertise in defining and implementing their tourism policy, designing and developing projects, and advising them on training, research, innovation and sustainable development. It is therefore the role of a “super-advisor” that the State entrusts to this organisation, relieving it of all the implementation of its policy and even of the definition of its policy. Should a private operator provide its expertise to define France’s tourism policy for its promotion? Furthermore, this article seems to be contrary to the principles set out in Article L. 111-1 of the French Tourism Code, which establishes the principle of joint competence, since: “the State, the regions, the departments and the municipalities are competent in the field of tourism and exercise these competences in cooperation and in a coordinated manner”. However, Article L. 141-2 of the Tourism Code establishes the principle of exclusive competence for Atout France. If this is the legislator’s intention, the article should be amended accordingly. Atout France and the State signed an agreement, which, as its name indicates, is a real roadmap set by the State for GIE to carry out its mission2. The agreement states that Atout France “contributes to the implementation of public policies”. In return for a certain number of missions, which are quite important since they include practically all the missions of Odit France of Maison de la France, but also of the former Tourism Directorate3, the State pays it several subsidies. b) Registration of travel and tourism operators The registration of these operators is one of the tasks entrusted to Atout France. It is the responsibility of an independent commission within the agency made up of expert members appointed by order of the minister in charge of 2 Annex II to the Information Report No. 03531 dated 15 June 2011 submitted pursuant to Article 145-7 of the rules of procedure by the Committee on Economic Affairs on the Implementation of Act No. 2009888 Of 22 July 2009 by Mr Jean Louis Leonard and Ms Pascale Got. 3 This involves registering and maintaining registers, defining the national promotion strategy for Destination France, promoting France as a destination, redesigning the Atout France website, attending trade fairs, organising exchange clubs, engineering and development, observing tourism phenomena, resource and training centres.
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