Today’s #SITE50 message comes from Catherine Pascaud. Catherine’s list of SITE accomplishments is a long one, with recent accomplishments that include winning the 2022 Kevin Forde Spirit Award, and her incredible work over the past few years to revive the SITE France chapter.

We’ve reshared some of the remarks Catherine published in early January on her personal LinkedIn page, as a testament to the fantastic cross-border collaborations SITE sparks.

Thank you Catherine, and to all of our chapter leaders, who are helping make these important connections for our members and for the wider global SITE community.

I am so happy to offer my warm and sincere thanks to members of the SITE France Board (and in particular, my co-President Myriam Munnick) who, thanks to their hard work and dedication, have made possible the renewal of the SITE French chapter in 2021 and 2022.

My sincere thanks also to our tourism institutions for having participated in our achievements as a Chapter after we experienced very difficult challenges during these two years, navigating between two extremes: from confinement, to an unbridled revival of tourism!

Our mission is to strengthen France as a destination in the global incentive travel market, to update the image of Paris and reveal new trends in our country combined with its glamour. 

We’ve placed emphasis on the two pillars of SITE — education and networking —through the discovery of our association to our fellow citizens, and through exchanges between chapters to obtain international recognition. 

Virtual collaborations

The Paris Convention Bureau offered us a first opportunity in March 2021 on the theme of « Incentive and innovation”, with Ellie MacPherson, one of SITE’s International Board of Directors members, as a speaker.

Aoife Delaney, SITE’s 2021 President, also honoured us with her presence as a webinar moderator in September 2021, on the subject of corporate social responsibility and performance.

Moreover, we also deeply thank two chapters for having so generously welcomed us to share knowledge. We collaborated with SITE Germany in February 2022 for a virtual gathering, No P.A.N.E., no Gain. 

SITE Midwest then joined us in March 2022 with an event run by Lindsay Adams, their President, and Susan Barnes, a SITE Midwest Board Member, themed on "Capturing Lightning in a Bottle."

Real-world connections

We were extremely honoured by the in-person visit of SITE's International Board of Directors (IBOD) and SITE Foundation's Board of Trustees (FBOT) to Paris in late 2021.

Thanks to the exceptional sponsorship of the Comité Régional du Tourisme d'Ile de France, we introduced our guests to new nuggets of French architecture and gastronomy: the sumptuous Hotel de la Marine located on the Place de la Concorde and the Halle aux Grains; the starred restaurant of the new Musée d'Art Moderne located in the heart of the Bourse de Commerce.

Our board has also worked to include France in SITE Foundation’s inSITEs research, especially in identifying companies planning incentive travel programs to participate and raise awareness to the power of incentive travel as a business tool and hopefully attract corporate members to SITE as a knowledgeable resource.

We are very grateful as well to the IBOD and FBOT for their great contribution to building relationships between SITE France and its German and Midwest chapters, as well as with SITE Minnesota.

In 2022, Paris retained its title as the world's top destination. It is characterised by "flourishing infrastructure and tourist performance" as revealed in one of the latest reports by Euromonitor, a UK-based market research company. 

Moreover, major sporting events that will take place in France during 2023 (Rugby World Cup) and 2024 (the Summer Olympics) will offer superb opportunities for incentives all over the country, especially in the South and in Bordeaux, where we are so lucky to have SITE members.

I am proud of having been offered the fantastic opportunity to give impetus to the revival of our chapter, as Past President of SITE France and Member of the International Board of Director during the 90s, at the beginning of SITE’s globalization.

I present my sincere wishes of success to our new SITE France President, Heike Ströhmann, and our new Board, who will surely reinforce the mission of SITE France.

As a destination, we are proud to participate in the renewal of incentive travel owing to our art de vivre from our different regions.

As part of SITE, we are proud to be an ambassador by sharing common values and building bridges with the rest of the world.