A-Infos (en) France, OCL CA #337 - The Olympic Games and tourism: expansion of the business domain! (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr) [machine translation]

Sport and tourism ---- Sport as a leisure activity established itself 
very early as an important sphere of tourism. The Alpine Club founded in 
London in 1857 is even considered the first structured association to 
organize mountain excursion tourism (1). However, the members of the 
British Alpine Club, steeped in the spirit of Victorian England, 
considered themselves much nobler and superior to other tourists seeking 
rest in resorts and frequenting the then fashionable spas (2). The 
character and qualities of these pioneers such as discipline, courage or 
even mastery and surpassing oneself have remained in modern sport ever 
since. The French Alpine Club which appeared a little later in 1874 
followed the same ideology.
If sport in the form of fencing, boating or horse racing was at that 
time a leisure activity specific to the bourgeoisie, its extension to 
other disciplines was organized at the same time as the tourist industry 
developed. . And when this tourism settles into the age of mass 
production and consumption after the Second World War, ski resorts 
develop in the mountains and more particularly in the Alps to welcome 
tourists to their new playgrounds. winter. The snow plans will then make 
it possible, from 1964 until 1977, to create 150,000 beds spread across 
20 new and 26 old resorts. In 1968 the Winter Olympics in Grenoble 
helped popularize snow sports. And resort outings organized by primary 
schools and snow classes - presented by some as "social" measures - will 
help the development of skiing (3). Children who learned to ski with the 
school are thus predisposed to return to the resort with their family 
and become the future customers of the white gold industry for years to 
come. Not very long ago, in September 2021, Laurent Wauquiez, president 
of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, even underlined for his Mountain 
Plan 2: "Our kids must learn to love skiing" to ensure the the future of 
stations; the future of the resorts that our Regional President is keen 
to develop in a "sustainable" way with hydrogen snow groomers, 
photovoltaic snow cannons and LED lighting (4). The inevitable economic 
development, now ecological, will again rely on a clientele previously 
formatted according to the standards of sports merchandise.

Olympic Games and territorial social and environmental attractiveness

The 1968 Grenoble Olympics popularized winter sports at a time when 
there was little concern for the societal and environmental effects of 
mass production and consumption. But today the candidate cities for the 
organization of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (JOP) before the IOC 
(5) find themselves obliged to emphasize the sustainable and social 
aspect of their project. Although it benefited from the defection of 
other candidate cities, Paris obtained the organization of the Olympic 
Games because it would be less costly: in fact the capital benefits from 
already existing infrastructure (stadiums, swimming pools, grounds). The 
reduced number of infrastructure constructions to be carried out allows 
the French capital to announce its compliance with the Paris climate 
agreements and its commitment to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 
during the organization of the JOP. The organizing committee for the 
Olympic and Paralympic Games (COJO) (6) even announces that this single 
criterion would reduce GHG emissions by half. Efforts would also be made 
to reduce the carbon footprint by using, for example, "renewable" 
energies in public transport, reception areas, etc. On a social level, 
Paris 2024 committed to ensuring respect for working conditions, the 
integration of vulnerable groups and access to markets for all 
companies: "VSE-SMEs, ESS companies [economy social and solidarity], 
sector of integration through economic activity (IAE), disability sector 
(7)". This deliberately social, inclusive and ecological policy 
certainly contributed to the award of the 2024 Summer Games to Paris. 
But it is also about giving Paris the image of an exemplary capital 
aimed at illustrating the territorial identity that the capital and more 
broadly the country are seeking to forge. Attractiveness policies are 
imposed on all territories with the sole aim of developing and boosting 
the economy. However, major international sporting events (GESI) ensure 
real attractiveness. Just like the "events" tourism sector (festivals, 
trade fairs, exhibitions, conventions, etc.) as a whole, the GESIs 
attract people. They captivate aficionados, spectators-tourists and 
television viewers in large numbers, but also investors and other 
capital holders. The territorial marketing which accompanies these GESI 
(8) and tourism in general aims to attract the occasional traveler in 
order to give them the desire to return to live there, create their 
business or continue their studies and work-consume in the territory for 
a longer period of time. term. Major GESIs such as the JOP have an 
advantage over other events: excess! The figures speak for themselves: 
the JOP will be followed by 20,000 accredited journalists, potentially 
by 4 billion viewers; A cumulative 16 million visitors are expected 
across all sports competitions. No other tourist event - sporting or not 
- can provoke such enthusiasm, develop such attractiveness.

Interministerial Councils for Tourism and the Olympic Games

Barely appointed Prime Minister, Édouard Philippe decided not to assign 
a simple ministry responsible for tourism. On July 26, 2017, it brought 
together an Interministerial Tourism Council (CIT) made up of half 
members of the government (around fifteen ministers and secretaries of 
state), to which are added around twenty professionals from the sector 
and a few elected officials. This Council will be responsible for 
"giving new impetus to the measures expected by the tourism industry (9)".
Among the tourism professionals present in this first CIT, half are 
closely interested in the Olympic Games: we include Sébastien Bazin, 
president of the Paris Saint-Germain football club, but also CEO of 
Accor-Hotels which will become an official partner JOPs; or Augustin de 
Romanet, CEO of ADP, the operator of Paris airports, then official 
supplier during the Paris 2024 bid campaign. There is also Jean-Marc 
Janaillac, CEO of Air France-KLM, official partner of Paris's candidacy 
for JOP 2024. Timothée de Roux is also participating in this first CIT. 
He is president of the National Union for the Promotion and Development 
of Vacation Rentals (UNPLV), bringing together the main players in 
vacation rentals and urban rentals, including Airbnb, which will become 
a global partner of the Paris JOPs in 2019. Among the other 
professionals present, we note Michel Dessolain, CEO of Viparis, manager 
of congress and exhibition sites in Île-de-France, such as the Palais 
des Congrès at Porte Maillot which will host the JOP main press center, 
the Porte de Versailles Exhibition Center and the Paris Nord Villepinte 
Exhibition Center where the Paris Nord Arena is located. There is also 
Catherine Pgard, president of the Public Establishment of the Palace of 
Versailles which will host the equestrian dressage and show jumping 
events and the horse riding and modern pentathlon events. Anne Yannic, 
Director of the Eiffel Tower company, was present at this CIT. A central 
element during the JOP, the Eiffel Tower sector will be renovated, 
pedestrianized and greened. It will host wrestling, beach volleyball, 
judo, triathlon and open water swimming events. Philippe Faure and 
Christian Mantei, respectively President and CEO of Atout France were 
also present; Atout France, France's state-linked tourism development 
agency, signed an agreement in October 2016 with Paris 2024 to support 
and promote the capital's candidacy for the organization of the 2024 
Olympic Games. Pierre-René Lemas, CEO of the Caisse des Dépôts et 
Consignations, was also included in the list of sponsors of the Paris 
2024 bid. And Jean-François Rial itou, president of the Paris Tourist 
and Convention Office until 2023, and CEO of Voyageurs du Monde, tour 
operator already involved in previous editions of the Olympic Games in 
Beijing and Rio de Janeiro.
Among the six elected officials involved in this CIT were Philippe 
Augier, mayor of Deauville who is now a candidate to host the Chinese 
delegation, Anne Hidalgo, mayor of Paris who will host the Olympic Games 
and Dominique Bussereau, president of the Assembly of the departments of 
France which signed an agreement with the COJOP in December 2021 so that 
the Olympic flame crosses all the departments with celebration in the 
evening in a town in each department. In this first CIT, were the 
presences of these elected officials and these tourism professionals now 
so involved in the JOPs totally fortuitous? There is room for doubt.

Mission report on major international sporting events

The organization of the 2024 Olympic Games was awarded to the city of 
Paris during an IOC session held in Peru in Lima in September 2017. Four 
months later, at the conclusion of the second Interministerial Tourism 
Council (CIT) on 19 January 2018, Prime Minister Édouard Philippe 
announced that the following CIT would be devoted largely to the theme 
"Sport and tourism". And a little later, the head of government sent a 
letter dated April 25, 2018 to MP Benjamin Dirx, in which he asked him 
to carry out a "mission jointly with Mr. Laurent Queige, president of 
the Welcome City Lab, Ms. Pascale Roque, general director of Pierre et 
Vacances Tourisme, and Mr. Patrick Doussot, vice-president of the Le 
Touquet tourist office [to] identify avenues of action in order to 
optimize the tourist benefits of major international sporting events 
organized in France in general, and of the 2023 Rugby World Cup as well 
as the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, in particular (10)". France 
having obtained the organization of the largest international sporting 
competitions (the Rugby World Cup and the JOPs), the Prime Minister 
wants at all costs to "establish a framework which allows better 
articulation between the hosting of these major sporting events and 
[their] ambitious objectives, both quantitative and qualitative, in 
terms of tourism: to go beyond the prospects for 2020 by exceeding 100 
million international visitors and 60 billion euros in tourism revenue 
(11)". If in hindsight this ambition did not quite achieve its objective 
because of Covid, the mission nevertheless responded to the requirements 
of the head of government and proposed new avenues of valorization and 
promotion to develop the attractiveness of the country. The reflection 
was to focus on "attractiveness strategies which make it possible to 
limit the effects of avoidance; the reception policies to be put in 
place to improve the visitor experience, maximize their length of stay 
and their average spending basket, adapt the offer to accessibility 
issues; the actions to be taken to allow all French destinations to 
benefit from the expected influx of visitors, and to develop territorial 
offers around these major sporting events (rear bases in particular); 
the ripple effects of major sporting events on certain sectors, 
particularly business tourism; the communication strategies to be 
developed before, during and after sporting events to capitalize on 
their notoriety and optimize their legacy, particularly in terms of the 
image and dynamism of the France destination (12)". The aim is to 
propose operational avenues tested before the Rugby World Cup and the 
Olympic Games since "tourism and sport are key sectors of our economy, 
which promote regional development, growth and employment". We are no 
longer burdened here with the discourse on Olympic values and the 
lifestyle based on joy in effort, educational value and respect for 
fundamental universal ethical principles. Nor do we dwell on "the 
Olympic Movement [having] the aim of contributing to building a peaceful 
and better world by educating young people through sport practiced 
without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit which 
requires mutual understanding, the spirit of friendship, solidarity and 
fair play (13)".

The mission report on GESI was submitted to the Prime Minister on July 
19, 2018, the day of the 3rd CIT devoted in part to sport and major 
sporting events so that they "be catalysts for tourist attractiveness 
(14)" and push to the expense (15); This is what emerged from the press 
kit. But let's come back to the mission report. After "hearing more than 
a hundred tourism and sport stakeholders (16)", the missionaries 
retained twenty-one measures aimed at developing a tourist offer thanks 
to GESI and promoting their knock-on effects in particular by 
"[maximizing] the economic benefits for the region thanks to shopping" 
and by developing "links with business tourism". All this with the help 
of means to be put in place: digital tools, financing, consultation and 
monitoring bodies, a reinforced transport offer, etc. Who could still 
think that tourism and consumption linked to GESI respond to a demand or 
a need which would have arisen outside of real interest? It clearly 
appears that consumer demand is giving way to a policy of development of 
the commercial offer of which the JOP and other GESI are the 
opportunity. On this subject, the GESIs, such as the Barcelona JOPs of 
1992, have "favored a very significant growth in tourist arrivals, 
increasing from 1.75 million in 1990, to 4 million in 2000, then 13 
million in 2010. The number of beds having increased by 98% between 1990 
and 2001 (17)". Our missionaries are right to emphasize that the number 
of tourists has continued to increase since the 1992 Olympic Games until 
2010. But they fail to emphasize the fact that a significant movement 
against this "tourist dynamic" has taken place. crystallized in 
Barcelona in particular against the gentrification and Airbnbization of 
working-class neighborhoods due to this same dynamic. This led in June 
2014, an activist for the right to housing, Ada Colau, to the head of 
the municipality of the Catalan capital. Despite a proactive policy 
aimed at reducing mass tourism (18), the results are striking: tourist 
arrivals in Barcelona reached their maximum in 2019 with 19.4 million 
tourists (19). Only the health measures imposed during the Covid period 
succeeded in reducing the number of tourists... But the influx of 
visitors resumed in 2022 and with it the nuisance; which makes the 
Municipal Councilor responsible for tourism (of the Socialist Party of 
Catalonia) at Barcelona City Hall, Xavier Marcé (20), say: "What is 
needed is to optimize the benefits and control the damage. This is the 
debate in which all European cities are engaged (21). » Contrary to what 
the mayor of Barcelona could have hoped at the start of the Covid 
crisis, the world after is not very different from the world before (22)...

Olympics and rights to work on Sunday

If the 2024 JOPs are, according to those in power, of undeniable 
interest for the tourist attractiveness and the economy of the 
territories, they are also a godsend for those who want to pass 
exceptional laws which would have difficulty convincing otherwise: they 
accustom the population to accept what seemed unacceptable. The law for 
growth, activity and equal opportunities (of course!) known as the 
Macron law of 2015 allowed businesses located in "special" places to 
open on Sundays and in the evening by creating international tourist 
zones (ZTI). Until then, the principle of Sunday rest is the rule in 
France, according to the law of 1906. Of course, exemptions are granted 
for certain areas of exceptional consumption use in urban units of more 
than one million inhabitants or again for food retail stores on Sunday 
morning. Other so-called automatic exemptions also exist for hospitals, 
hotels and museums and authorizations can also be granted exceptionally.
The ZTIs were born with the desire to retain foreign tourists in France 
and make them spend their money. Sunday and evening work was also a 
demand from the lobby of tourism professionals united in Alliance 46.2 
(23). In order to broaden the scope of the "right to Sunday work", 
twelve ZTIs were created in Paris by ministerial decrees in application 
of the law of August 6, 2015 and nine in the rest of the country. 
Certain stations in Paris and the provinces will also benefit from 
regulations similar to the ZTI on Sunday work.
In an exceptional situation, an exceptional law. Article 25 of the law 
of May 19, 2023 relating to the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games 
extends the relaxation of working rules on Sundays between June 15 and 
September 30, 2024: "In the municipalities where the competition sites 
are located of the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games as well as in the 
municipalities bordering or located near these sites, the State 
representative in the department may, taking into account the needs of 
the public resulting from the expected exceptional influx of tourists 
and workers [...], authorize a retail establishment which makes goods or 
services available to deviate from the Sunday rest rule (24)." 
Obviously, "the exemption from Sunday rest is implemented in the 
establishment subject to the voluntary participation of the employee 
(25)"... However, the Minister for Commerce [and Tourism], Olivia 
Grégoire, who brought this measure to the Sunday work by presenting it 
in the text of the law on the Olympic Games did she not declare that she 
was, beyond this particular period, in favor of a modification of the 
current law which authorizes businesses to open only 12 Sundays per year 
(26)?

Olympics and security measures

But the law on the Paris Olympics above all made it possible to 
introduce, it is said in a limited time manner, algorithmic video 
surveillance. All this attractiveness, this shopping and this business 
around tourism, the GESI and the JOP of Paris require protection that 
meets the challenges. Under the guise of protection and the fight 
against terrorism, but also of maintaining order, not to mention the 
so-called exceptional measures and the trivialization of the state of 
emergency, security laws follow one another. One of the latest is the 
"law of May 25, 2021 for global security preserving freedoms". This 
notably provides the city of Paris with a municipal police force. It 
expands the powers of municipal police and that of private security 
agents and increases the possibilities of access to video surveillance 
images. All these measures are particularly in line with the 
requirements for the smooth running of the 2023 Rugby World Cup and the 
2024 Olympic Games... Security around the Stade de France proved chaotic 
during the League final of champions, on May 28, 2022 and underlined the 
need to strengthen the workforce and the means to secure the most 
followed sporting event in the world: the JOP. While avoiding any 
conspiratorial analyses, we note, however, that the "dysfunctions" 
surrounding this Champions League final will have made it possible to 
refocus opinions and needs on the security of the JOPs. The global 
security law of May 25 gave certain possibilities, but the measures 
which were not possible to pass through this law were finally passed on 
May 19, 2023 with article 10 of the law relating to the Olympic and 
Paralympic Games of 2024. This law authorizes in an experimental 
framework limited in time - until March 2025, well after the end of the 
JOP - to collect images using video surveillance systems and cameras 
installed on drones and to process them by artificial intelligence. 
These algorithmic processing operations have "the sole purpose of 
detecting, in real time, predetermined events likely to present or 
reveal these risks and to report them" and for the sole purpose "of 
ensuring the security of sporting, recreational or cultural events (... 
) exposed to risks of acts of terrorism or serious attacks on personal 
security" (27). This experimental framework will make it possible to 
implement these new security means but also to accustom the population 
to submitting to these controls and accepting them, provisionally, we 
are told.

Tourism, entertainment, sport and social control

GESIs, like tourism in general, are drivers of the market economy. They 
greatly contribute to territorial attractiveness, also a source of 
economic development. But certain situations can compromise this 
commodification: terrorism, war, certain crises, social conflicts, the 
generalized climate of violence or theft, etc. ; anything that can raise 
a feeling of insecurity. More generally, the commodity associated with 
the work in all its forms which produces it requires social peace to 
sell it which only a State can guarantee by maintaining order and force 
or coercion if necessary. It is not so much social movements that worry 
the State but rather its repercussions on marketization. This is 
evidenced by the yellow vest movement in Paris at the end of 2018 which, 
following the devastation of the Champs Élysées, caused the cancellation 
of numerous tourist reservations. In recent years, tourism has 
strengthened the security of places and tourist, cultural or sporting 
sites, in particular through the deployment of patrols and video 
surveillance cameras, but also through the establishment of a label of 
security of tourist sites: "SÉCURI-SITE", whose conventions make it 
possible to adapt the security response on a case-by-case basis for each 
sensitive site (26). The generalization of the security model applied to 
all commercialization is done through the tourism, sport and 
entertainment sector which the population is more able to accept, 
feeling the advantage and pleasure of it. grant. All the more so since 
this tourism, this sport and this entertainment, included in a lifestyle 
deemed desirable because it is based on hedonistic compensation in the 
face of the obligation to produce, themselves contribute to pacification 
and social control. In this context, to be entertained is to accept, and 
to want more and more without ever feeling satisfied.

The Grenoble Anti-Tourism Office

Notes

1 Previously, in 1841, Thomas Cook had organized his first therapeutic 
trip against alcohol dependence. He will then develop other organized 
trips. The first travel agency had just been created at that time.

2 Delphine Moraldo, The Spirit of Mountaineering. A sociology of 
excellence from the 19th to the 20th century, ENS Éditions.

3 The same phenomenon of development aid has been deployed over the last 
15 to 20 years by schools, under the pretext of equality and 
democratization: the use of digital technology in schools has mainly 
served to familiarize society with its computerization. School is a very 
good way to intervene in the desired developments in society. Leisure 
and digital technology have propelled the corresponding economic 
sectors. But they also participate in a certain maintenance of order and 
social peace; the contemporary "bread and circuses".

4 https://www.francebleu.fr/infos/eco...

5 The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is the international 
organization which designates the host cities of the Olympic Games.

6 The Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games (OCOG) 
is responsible for the organization, planning, financing and running of 
the Olympic Games. The OCOG is constituted by the National Olympic 
Committee of the country of the host city and "must comply with the 
Olympic Charter, the contract concluded between the IOC, the NOC and the 
host city (host city contract), as well as the instructions of the IOC 
Executive Board.

7 https://www.paris2024.org/fr/charte... ;

8 For 2023 and the five following years, France has the following GESIs: 
the Alpine Ski World Championship in Courchevel-Méribel, the Rugby 
League World Cup, the Rugby League World Cup, the Transat Jacques-Vabre 
every two years, the Vendée Globe every four years, the Basketball World 
Cup, but also the cycling Tour de France and Roland-Garros. And of 
course the most important of all: the JOPs of Paris 2024.

9 https://www.politique.fr/sites/d...

10 https://www.entreprises.gouv.fr/fil.. . ;

11 Ibid.

12 Ibid.

13 Speech supported by the IOC: https://olympics.com/cio/au-dela-de... ;

14 According to Édouard Philippe in the editorial of the press kit 
dedicated to this 3rd CIT: https://www.politique.fr/sites/d... ;

15 Among the main measures taken during this 3rd CIT, there is for 
example the connection between tourist and sports ticket offices: the 
idea is to offer the spectator purchasing a ticket for a major 
competition accommodation and a tourist pack to "maximize ] the positive 
impacts in favor of the attractiveness of France and its territories and 
the tourism sector". See press kit Ibid.

16 https://www.entreprises.gouv.fr/fil... ;

17 Ibid.

18 https://www.latribune.fr/economie/i... ;

19 https://www.shbarcelona.fr/blog/fr/... ;

20 In 2019, Xavier Marcé was elected from the Party of Socialists of 
Catalonia which governs jointly with elected officials from the 
Barcelona en commun list led by Ada Colau, the outgoing mayor of 
Barcelona re-elected in 2019 thanks to the indispensable support of 
Manuel Valls, the former Prime Minister of François Hollande who ran on 
the Ciutadans list, center-right party.

21 https://www.letemps.ch/monde/barcel... ;

22 Ada Colau, "This crisis shows us a path", Le Monde, June 16, 2020.

23 Alliance 46.2 has changed its name. It became the France Tourism 
Alliance.

24 https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/jorf...

25 Ibid.

26 https://www.lefigaro.fr/societes/jo...

27 https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/jorf...

28 https://mobile.interieur.gouv.fr/Ar... ;

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