Julia Luczak-Rougeaux

🚌 In France, a network of free, spontaneous carpooling stops is emerging, featuring luminous panels connected to a device offering 6 destinations. Passengers select their city, and nearby drivers are alerted to pick them up. Ecov developed this low-tech system to reduce solo driving; some areas also use a mobile app. The first such network began in Alsace in 2021, expanding to locations including Courchevel, Chambery, Grenoble, and Reims.

🏖 In the Olympic year, several travel tech companies in France, highlighted by Atout France, have intensified efforts to enhance the tourist experience using data and AI. Thémis-X offers MyTravelConnect for data portability; Murmuration uses satellite data to assess environmental impact; AskMona features a chatbot and AI-powered historical figures for interaction; CityMe provides AI-driven personalized city tours in Barcelona, Seville, Madrid, London, and Paris; Anto.info delivers a comprehensive event assistant; BetterWorld analyzes customer satisfaction through AI; PatrimoineTour offers a chatbot for unique itineraries; and GenIAl created MarIAnne, a virtual travel assistant for France.fr.

🏖️ The Golfe du Morbihan Tourism Office introduced three digital tools this summer to enhance the customer experience, including a personalized digital travel diary accessible via webapp, a chatbot named Django powered by generative AI, and a welcoming robot named Erwan at the Vannes tourist information office, dressed in Breton colors. These innovations aim to guide and welcome visitors more efficiently, 24/7.

🎫 On August 11, during the Paris Olympics closing ceremony, German company Volocopter's eVTOL flew over the gardens of Château de Versailles. The flight aimed to demonstrate the agility of the electric aircraft, which could serve emergency services by quickly reaching accident sites. The Volocity flying taxi, designed by Volocopter, can reach speeds of 80 km/h, is powered by 18 electric motors, and has 9 rechargeable batteries. A new experiment is planned with Paris' AP-HP to test medical use cases. Volocopter is working towards pre-certification flights to gain authorities' approval to transport passengers, with hopes to start commercial eVTOL flights by the year's end.