Why becoming a Village étape?
What is the goal ?
- engage in a quality hospitality approach in order to offer road users the services and shops of your city for a pleasant break on their journey.
- Promote the assets of its territory but also ensure additional economic benefits for professionals in your municipality.
- Village Étape is also a tool to mobilize all the players of the territory around a common economic and tourism development project.
What are the effects ?
Despite the difficulty of measuring very accurately and numerically the traffic related to Village étape in the cities, all the municipalities ask for the renewal of their label and not a single shopkeeper would want to see the revocation of the Villages étape signs on the road. All agree that the traffic in their city increased after the labeling Village Étape.
After 25 years of operation, it has been clearly seen that the Village étape plays a role as a service hub in its territory by having a density of food shops, hotels and restaurants superior to other municipalities. The evolution of the commercial fabric is positive, faster transmission or creation of businesses are observed and the population is mostly growing as well. The quality of the urban space in the downtown has also improved.
How to become a Village étape?
The French Federation of Villages étapes accompanies municipalities in this process. The association was created in 2002 and its headquartered are in Limoges. Its aim is to bring together all the municipalities certified in France. It is run by a President and a board of members composed of actors (elected or tourist offices) of the Villages étapes themselves.
