Who
never felt lost arriving in a new country? Whether as a tourist or as a new
inhabitant, the first moments spent in an unknown environment (using, most of
the time, a different language) are always a little bit confusing. In most
cases help is needed and really appreciated. This is what this article is
about: this kind of adjustments that a city can do, to make it likeable and
enjoyable to visitors.
As
we previously saw, Paris gives great importance to welcoming foreign visitors. That
is why the city implements agreements, events and actions to help foreigners to
adjust to and fit in the Parisian life.
For
example, the city gives a 7 million Euros grant per year to the Paris tourist
office that implemented several reception centers
especially in train stations and airports where tourists flow abundantly.
In
the following article, we will list the diverse actions put in place by the
city of Paris to improve the quality of reception of visitors.
Reception center of the Paris
tourist office in Roissy airport
With seasonal kiosks, the “Ambassadeurs de l’accueil” (“The welcoming
Ambassadors”) operation, organized by the city of Paris
and Paris tourist office, has been created in particular to promote
the city summer program. It has now been running for
several summers in a row. Those kiosks are located in most popular places and
seasonal workers speaking 15 different languages in total are here to help and
inform tourists. The objective of this operation is to enable visitors to live
in contact with Parisians people and make Parisians benefit from exchanges with
different cultures (Parisservices2, 2005).
An agreement between the city and the police prefecture exists regarding the reception of tourists to facilitate their administrative procedures.
A similar agreement has also
been created regarding the welcoming of
foreign students in 2012 between the city of Paris, the international
university estate of Paris and Paris CROUS (in France the CROUS offers a varied
range of services to students). The objective is to facilitate the arrival of
foreign students by implementing a welcoming service of foreign students. A
welcoming multilingual team (speaking English, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese,
Arabic, Greek, Russian and Chinese) specially trained to answer questions
related to student mobility is at the foreign students disposal for the three
first months of the academic year. Depending on their requests, students will
then be directed to public services present all year long: the Police
Prefecture of Paris, The French Office for immigration and integration, health
insurances, etc. (Dossier de Presse – Cité internationale
universitaire de Paris, 2012).
With the “Label
Paris co-développement sud”, Paris city hall support Parisian cultural
diversity. Created in 2006,
the “Paris Label south co-development” is a call for projects dedicated to
international solidarity associative projects running by migrants or in close
collaboration with them. This action completes the traditional financing of
NGOs, supporting projects that reinforce the integration of foreign populations
in Paris. Through this action, Paris highlights migrants associations, which
significant number reflects the cultural diversity of the city.
This
year will be the 8th edition ran by the city of Paris. Last year, in
2012, 53 Parisian associations applied to this project, 9 of them were selected
in diverse areas such as education, culture, human rights, economics, etc. Winning
projects got grants from 5000 to 13000 Euros offered by the city. Were rewarded
initiatives that had a double impact, one on the development of the countries
of origin and one on the foreign population integration in Paris.
Among
events that contribute to make living together easier in Paris, we can mention
the celebration of important foreign events like Chinese, Vietnamese and Berber
new years. Indeed, this year, on February 8th, the city of Paris
decided to celebrate, with Parisian people that come from China and Vietnam,
their respective new year. On January 14th, for the 8th consecutive
year, Paris celebrated Berber new year, with Parisian people with Berber origin.
These festive gatherings are open
to everyone and are unique moments
of cultural sharing, grouping more than 100,000 people.
We should also note the many voluntary initiatives aiming to bring residents and visitors together thanks
to collaborative tourism with the association “Parisien d’un jour, Parisien toujours -
Paris Greeter” (meaning “Parisian for a day, Parisian forever”). This
association offers free trips to foreign visitors or from other part of France
wishing to discover the Paris of Parisians people. Volunteers are enthusiastic
and friendly locals that make visitors discover their neighborhood to small
groups (up to 6 people). Visitors can subscribe to this service registering on
the association website that is available in French, English, Spanish and German:
www.parisgreeters.fr
Just in case you wondering what is collaborative tourism, here is how we
could define it: Collaborative tourism involves the host population in tourist activities
or engages visitors in the local life of
the region visited. It is one way
to rethink the relationship between tourists and residents and to reinvent the meaning of hospitality (Voyageons-autrement.com, 2013).
And the list goes on...
The point of this article was just to let you know what kind of adjustments
can be made to make foreign visitors feel more welcome and facilitate their
integration to the local culture.
If you have any
thoughts or ideas on what other actions could be implemented please share them
with us ;)
References :
Dossier de Presse – Cité internationale
universitaire de Paris. 2012. Paris
accueille les étudiants du monde.
Retrieved from: http://193.52.24.107/Communication/dossier_presse_SAEE2012.pdf
Paris.fr. 2012. Lettre d’information de l’action internationale de la Ville de Paris.
Retrieved from: http://www.paris.fr/politiques/paris-a-l-international/lettre-d-information-de-l-action-internationale-de-la-ville-de-paris/rub_6585_stand_94597_port_14967
Paris.fr. Mars 2005. ParisServices2, Priorité à
l’accueil.
Paris
Greeters. 2013.
Voyageons-autrement.com. 2013. Tourisme participative et voyage alternatif.
Retrieved from: http://www.voyageons-autrement.com/index/tourisme-participatif/
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire