> The choice of Marseille (with the jury’s congratulations!)
Anne Sophie Vandesmet: Expédia® Corporate Travel Marseille (ECT) began with
a major study carried out in May 2006. A call for bids was made to about fifteen
towns in France and in Europe with a very precise specification dealing with three
main criteria:
- a job basin so that advisers can be recruited quickly and trained in the tourism
business during each growth phase;
- structures dedicated to training of our future advisers (schools preparing for the
BTS (Higher Technician Certificate) in Tourism, local tourism training organisa-
tions);
- the possibility of recruiting employees with foreign languages skills (Southern and
Northern European languages); with a pleasant lifestyle and work environment.
There were originally two distinct development projects, firstly extension of the
France customer service that was too cramped in Paris La Défense, and then the
Europe service for which there were options throughout France, and also in Spain,
Belgium and Ireland. The idea of being able to satisfy both of these requirements
in a single location was put forward. The final choice was close, and was the result
of a competition between Lille and Marseille, with a non-negligible challenger,
namely Nantes.
> Provence Promotion, single and ideal one stop shopping...
The final choice was the Belle de Mai site in Marseille. Christophe Pingard, our
CEO, Germain Huber, operations director and myself, the project leader, immedi-
ately appreciated the premises, their environment and their access. But the big
difference was the investment and involvement of the different local authorities, led
by Provence Promotion. Even in the research phase, the development agency
facilitated access to all organizations that we needed to contact to make our project
successful, through a one-stop shopping outlet providing access to Marseille
Provence Métropole, Paca Mode d'Emploi (providing services to companies in the
PACA region), CG 13 (