Henri Prevost – Allard, Deputy Mayor, Tourism and Claude Maniscalco, Director, Saint Tropez Tourist Office, recently visited Mumbai to update the Indian market on novelties and unique experiences in Saint Tropez through the diverse channels such as media and most importantly the network of travel agents/tour operators and to unveil Saint Tropez’s 2013 event calendar specially designed for the Indian travellers. Allard said, “We are a small village located in the South of France and we annually welcome five million global visitors. We are well known in India and receive approx 5,000 Indian visitors on an average per year. We want to increase this number by decorating the various facets of Saint Tropez on a plate for the Indian travellers.” He further added that there is a strong historical link that binds the village and India. “This link manifests itself in the form of a love story between General Allard of Saint Tropez and an Indian Princess Bhan Pan Dei. As a proposed partnership between Saint-Tropez town council and Indian Ministry of Tourism a large number of sports and cultural events were organised.”
To further commemorate this historical link, Saint Tropez tourism will take many such steps to continue to strengthen the bilateral ties of co-operation between Saint Tropez and India. “Our objective for the Indian market is to attract a large number of upscale travellers to plan a French sojourn in Saint Tropez and to increase visibility to today’s young traveller while highlighting the glamorous image of our destination,” said Maniscalco.
Pointing out that Saint-Tropez is only a short drive from Nice airport and a short flight from Paris, he also stated that the village boasts of a rich history, some of the factors that have attributed to its success as a tourist destination are – sunny beaches, wine, gastronomy delights, shopping, art galleries, nightclubs and bars. According to Maniscalco, though the capacity of hotels is only 1,903 rooms with more than 800 four and five star accommodations, the inventory is strengthened by apartments and villas in the vicinity.
