Tourist office: informing visitors without overwhelming the front desk

Under article L133-3 of France’s Tourism Code (Code du tourisme), the tourist office handles the reception and information of tourists and the tourism promotion of the municipality or the group of municipalities, in coordination with the departmental and regional tourism committees. It helps to coordinate the work of the partners in local tourism development.

The same article provides that it may be entrusted by the municipal council with all or part of local tourism policy, in particular the development of tourist services, the operation of tourist and leisure facilities, studies, leisure activities, the organisation of festivals and cultural events, and that it may sell tourist services under the conditions set out in the Code. Reception and information are therefore the foundation, and the phone is very much part of it.

According to the entreprises.gouv.fr website (the French government’s business information site), since the NOTRe law of 7 August 2015 (France’s law on the new territorial organisation of the Republic), the creation of tourist offices is in principle a matter for groupings of municipalities (intercommunalités), while classified tourist resorts and tourist municipalities may, under certain conditions, keep or regain this responsibility. Offices can also voluntarily apply for classification in category I or II, whose criteria cover in particular reception and information, a multilingual website and a presence on social networks.

For a visitor, these administrative distinctions matter little: they call “the office” and expect an answer. But they explain why areas organise reception in different ways, with teams, hours and resources that differ from one office to another.

For phone reception, this intercommunal organisation has a concrete consequence: the office may have to answer for several municipalities, which lengthens the list of information to keep up to date and of contacts to know.

Without claiming to put figures on their frequency, they can be sorted into families: opening hours and days of sites, access and parking, visit prices, the events programme, the list of accommodation or restaurants, activities in bad weather, practical information about the town. Several of them are factual information that the office already holds.

Seasonality mostly changes the nature of the information. A summer timetable is not a winter timetable, an event has dates, a site closes for works. For an answer to remain reliable, the information must be updated at the same pace as the season, and whoever answers must know what has changed.

A practical method is to date each important item of information and appoint one person to review it at every change of season. This review prevents an out-of-date price or timetable from continuing to be given on the phone, at the counter and on the website.

Automated phone reception suits stable information supplied by the office: opening hours, address, access, published prices, the programme of events, partners’ contact details. It can also take a structured message (name, number, request) when a visitor wants to be called back, for example for information about a group or a press visit.

It does not replace the personalised advice of a visitor adviser, who adapts a proposal to a family’s wishes, nor payment. It only has what the office has given it: missing information must not be invented, but referred to the right contact.

You also need to plan the exit: when the visitor asks to speak to a person, they should be able to be put through to an adviser or, failing that, leave a message that will be returned. This possibility of handing over is part of the quality of reception, just like the accuracy of the answers.

To limit pressure on the counter during the busy weeks, the office can draw up in advance a list of recurring questions and validated answers. The writing is collective: the visitor advisers know what visitors ask, and the manager reviews it to make sure the information stays consistent with the website.

Some calls deserve to be qualified rather than handled: a group preparing a visit, a journalist, a provider proposing a partnership. A message giving the name, the organisation, the planned date and a call-back number lets the right adviser pick up the request without redoing the whole interview.

Before automating anything, the office does well to write a single document: hours by season, prices, useful links, contacts, answers to the ten questions of the moment, and a date of last update. This document serves everyone, at the counter, on the phone and on the website.

For offices that want to absorb calls in high season, Alyas, an AI voice agent, answers using the information the office provides (website, text or PDF), announces at the start of the call that it is an AI and that the conversation is recorded, and collects the contact details of visitors who ask to be called back. It leaves a transcript and a summary in the Alyas workspace, and if it does not know, it says so and offers to pass the request on. It works 24 hours a day, and the 10-day free trial, with no card required, lets you test it before the season.