Faire d’une passion une profession : la place des syndicats d’initiative dans le tourisme français

• Main Author: Julie Manfredini
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Éditions Touristiques Européennes 2019-12-01
• Series: Mondes du Tourisme
• Subjects: tourism; French tourist office; identity; cultural studies
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/tourisme/2327

In France, tourist networks have been created by the dynamic action of tourist associations, of which tourist offices (syndicats d’initiative, SI) are part. These local structures, bringing together all professions interested by the tourism, come from an innovative approach that appeared in 1889 in Grenoble, with the birth of the first French tourist office (SI). Intended for the reception and information of tourists, the SI also carry out the touristic development of their territory. However, these associations lacked recognition and their daily difficulties lead us to wonder about their longevity. Indeed, the SI have lived for 80 years, considered sometimes as the foundation of receptive tourism, sometimes as “marketing agency”, but whose essential actions within tourist networks remain unknown. Here, it is a question of studying the history of these SI through the commitment of their volunteers, passionate about their city; their region and their homeland. Although our research is not exhaustive, we wish to draw a portrait of this “multifaceted world” which places tourism at the center of its concerns, by relying on the sources emitted by these different SI. Passions and personal convictions generate active mobilization in favor of the territory and lead to the construction of a common culture. French tourist offices (SI) thus become a promotional tool and a symbol of commitment, being both the receptacle and the transmitter of the territory’s cultural identity. These elites perceived the cultural issue, made it a driving force in the tourism industry, and thus created a “tourism culture”. Also, throughout the history of these structures, between the years 1900 to 1970, we wish to show how much the SI were the backbone, fragile but lasting, of French tourism, thanks to their members, who were ubiquitous actors within French touristic networks.