The 48th edition of IFTM Top Resa, France’s flagship B2B travel marketplace, opened its doors today at Paris-Porte de Versailles, bringing together 32,000 delegates from 200 destinations, technology vendors and mobility start-ups. Uzbekistan is this year’s ‘Country of Honour’, using a 600-m² pavilion to pitch high-speed rail links and new e-visa corridors to French tour operators. In his keynote, tourism minister Serge Papin framed the show around “the value of travel” and pledged state support for greener transport options. The ministry will extend its low-interest ‘Décarbone-Tourisme’ loans to help operators electrify vehicle fleets and adopt eco-certification standards before the 2028 Olympic tourism surge. Start-ups such as Flyinstinct and Worldia are demonstrating AI-driven itinerary builders that integrate carbon calculators and visa-rule updates. A dedicated ‘Global Mobility Hub’ on the show floor focuses on visa outsourcing, digital identity and duty-of-care solutions. France-Visas officials briefed delegates on the new feature that lets student-visa applicants upload supporting documents via smartphone, while Capgemini previewed a prototype that feeds EES compliance alerts directly into corporate booking tools. For French-based multinationals the take-aways are concrete: Uzbekistan’s simplified e-visa (48-hour processing, €25 fee) opens up Central-Asian market research trips, and SNCF’s announcement of a Paris-Berlin overnight service extension to Warsaw in 2027 may enable more rail-first mobility policies. Buyers were advised to pre-contract hotel allotments early as Paris will host over 40 world congresses in Q2 2027. IFTM runs until 17 September with more than 200 conference sessions ranging from cross-border payments to travel security in the Sahel. Organisers RX France confirmed that next year’s fair will add a dedicated expatriate-management stream reflecting rising demand for international talent moves.
Source: Le Figaro
