6 French Travel Startups Thriving Despite the Pandemic
Photo Credit: Esplanade de La Défense in Paris. Paris Tourist Office / Jacques Lebar
Skift Take
Travel bookings will get worse before they get better. But we found a half dozen French travel startups defying the odds. They appear to be setting themselves up well for the post-crisis rebound. Bonne chance!
France banned travel to and from countries outside of the European Union on January 31 in an effort to contain the coronavirus pandemic. The news clouded predictions about how soon and how fast travel bookings would rebound.
Yet despite the gloom, a handful of French travel startups have adapted well to the crisis. Explora Project, Evaneos, Cirkwi, Cocoonr, MagicStay, and Koala appear to be in strong positions to grow as the pandemic dissipates.
Several factors may make France a fertile ground for travel tech innovation.
"We have more international tourist arrivals than any other country, according to the WTO," said Caroline LeBoucher, CEO of Atout France, the tourism development agency. "We're ranked as having one of the most competitive tourism industries by the World Economic Forum. We had the first major recovery program for startups."
"President Macron has a very strong commitment to innovation with the development of the French Tech effort for startups, which connect
