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IN BRIEF
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Driven by fresh energy and a resolutely collective vision, IFTM Top Resa 2025 establishes itself as a benchmark meeting for responsible and innovative tourism. At the opening, the operation Tous à vélo set the tone for an edition marked by Forces en action: more than 400 exhibitors, 1,650 brands, and nearly 34,000 visitors expected to meet in Paris to co-construct solutions, stimulate synergies between public and private actors, and accelerate the transformation of the sector, from sustainability to business travel.
IFTM Top Resa is Gaining Momentum! Forces in Action and Ambitions 2025
The trade show kicks off with a bang featuring an iconic scene: a collective movement on bicycles, envisioned as a manifesto in favor of soft mobility and cooperation. Under the guidance of Laurence Gaborieau, the 2025 theme, “Forces en action – Let’s Build Desirable Bridges”, encourages each professional to shift from principle to experimentation, from discourse to concrete solutions. This positioning is embodied in a rich program, backed by the power of a trade show that remains the major French-speaking business platform for tourism.
With the Dominican Republic as the featured destination, the international dimension is strengthened, bolstered by the presence of numerous decision-makers. The new Village of Sustainable Initiatives highlights projects that reinvent practices, from accommodation to distribution, including data and artificial intelligence. A dynamic that extends the reflections engaged in recent years around innovations at the heart of sustainable tourism.
A Symbolic Bicycle Launch
A few turns of the wheel were enough to establish a state of mind: that of a sector that cooperates and moves forward. Around the trade show management, representatives from institutions, associations, and destinations pedaled in unison, illustrating the common desire to make cycling a marker of attractiveness and transition. The gesture is simple, the message powerful: transformation begins here, through visible and shared actions.
IFTM Top Resa is Gaining Momentum! A Crossroad of Brands, Ideas, and Alliances
The strength of IFTM lies in its ripple effect. Over three days, more than 400 exhibitors and 1,650 brands create an exhaustive showcase of destinations, services, and technologies that shape the future of travel. Nearly 34,000 visitors – agencies, tour operators, buyers, hosts, transporters, start-ups – crowd the aisles and conference stages to explore uses, streamline customer journeys, and activate new growth levers.
Economic and Diplomatic Influence
The trade show also confirms its role as an influence hub, with the participation of numerous ministers and ambassadors who came to support the strategies of their markets. In this context, discussions about the relocation of certain value chains, the adaptation of agencies to new purchasing behaviors and demand volatility are gaining depth. The analyses published on agency adaptation provide useful insights into these mutations and their operational impacts.
IFTM Top Resa is Gaining Momentum! Soft Mobility at the Heart of the Fair
The Tous à vélo sequence resonates with a major trend: the rise of bicycle tourism and peaceful itinerancy. In France, more than 21,000 km of developed cycling routes form a powerful network, while traffic increases on major routes such as Vélodyssée, ViaRhôna, or Loire à Vélo. This infrastructure, coupled with quality labels such as Accueil Vélo, attracts demanding clientele and promotes a virtuous economy for the territories.
At the international level, the Dominican Republic displays its willingness to diversify its strengths and invest in bicycle paths, in a logic of sustainable and inclusive development. Bicycle tourism, a creator of jobs and a diffuser of flows both in space and time, becomes a lever of territorial balance as well as a marketing asset for destinations seeking differentiation.
Key Bicycle Figures and Opportunities for Destinations
The indicators converge: nearly 83.6% of the national cycle route scheme is now completed, amounting to approximately 21,831 km developed. Economic returns range from €28,000 to €97,000 per kilometer per year, depending on the type of routes and the density of services. On the traveler side, about 5 million French people engage in sporting tourism while traveling, and the use of bicycles also progresses in intermodality, particularly driven by the increase in bicycle spaces in trains. For businesses and local authorities, the potential remains real but is conditioned by safety, infrastructure, and support for change.
IFTM Top Resa is Gaining Momentum! Changing Markets for Professionals
From a business perspective, the “bicycle” segment is experiencing steady growth in Europe. The market for bicycle tour operators exceeds €400 million at the European level, with an average spending of around €1,000 per person. In France, the offer stabilizes at a high level, driven by more immersive products, longer stays, and an upgrade in services. EDV also observes a proliferation of entrepreneurial projects around sports, itinerancy, and cycle tourism.
In business travel, the adoption of bicycles remains nascent: at this stage, only a minority of companies explicitly integrate it into their travel policies, although more than a third consider financial support essential for its development. The barriers relate to distance, time, and safety in urban areas. There remains room for improvement for intra-urban or inter-site uses, with adapted services and well-calibrated internal incentives.
Products, Insurance, and Innovation
The transformation movement is also visible in the value chain: new packaged products, adapted travel insurance solutions, digitalization of routes and exploration platforms. In this respect, the IFTM ecosystem highlights advancements, from Assurever and its innovations to the rise of the Travel Explorer experience at trade shows that showcase new uses and purchasing scenarios. On the network side, activities and competitions like the Agents of Travel Cup reinforce the commercial culture of teams and spread best practices.
Remaining is the systemic challenge: fostering dialogue between innovation, sustainability, and performance. The reflections on the adaptation of models, from distribution to customer relations, are nourished by ground-level actions, quantitative feedback, and territorial cooperation, with local impact and value to the traveler as the guiding compass.
IFTM Top Resa is Gaining Momentum! France, the First Bicycle Destination in Sight
The perspective is clear: to make France the world’s leading destination for bicycle tourism by 2030. The ingredients are in place: a rapidly expanding network of routes, a quality-labeled offer, destinations that structure their services, and clientele eager for slower, more local, and more responsible travel. For professionals, the equation combines product development, service quality, intermodality, and narrative framing of territories.
In the background, it represents a new way of thinking about the traveler experience: taking time, fostering encounters, better distributing flows, preserving resources, and connecting actors through tangible bridges. By leveraging collective intelligence, IFTM Top Resa accelerates this shift, with a continuum of exchanges between conferences, workshops, and demonstrations, ensuring a program that consolidates its role as a sharing space serving the entire industry.
