Page 45 - StudyTravel Magazine August 2019 Issue

MARKET ANALYSIS STUDYTRAVEL MAGAZINE AUGUST 2019

France

There was positivity among French language providers in 2018, with government
support and recognition shoring up the sector, as NICOLA HANCOX finds out.

There are lots of positives to report in our 2018 analy- Individual bookings were down in 2018 for
sis of the French language teaching market. “We IFALPES www.ifalpes.com, while group bookings
increased the number of students [in 2018],” begins were up, confi rms Agency Development Manager,
Slavka Bertova at Infl exyon, Centre Intercultural Fran- Stéphanie Dulac. The school underwent renovation
cais de Lyon www.infl exyon.com. “We suppose that in summer 2018 and recently launched a new web-
is due to our good reputation and visa reform that site, changes that have helped raise the profi le of the
enables more students to learn French in France.” school, says Stéphanie. In addition, “Following our
Indeed, last year President Emmanuel Macron acquisition by LSF Montpellier at the end of 2018,
announced a series of initiatives aimed to promote we are now able to offer students a ‘multi-centre’
the study of French, including growing the number of course,” combining the very best of the alps with life
French language institutes and its willingness to ease by the ocean.
up on visa requirements for certain markets. Italy remained the top nationality source by stu-
Philippe Minereau from Saint Denis International dent weeks, according to ST surveyed schools, fol-
School www.saint-denis.net says, “2018 has been a lowed by the USA and China. Historically, Europe has
tremendous year for us. We emphasised on work- been a major market for FLE but only half of the top
shops with quick return on investment. Many agents 10 was European with North America, Latin America
also visited the school and started to enrol students.” and Asia accounting for the remainder.
Student numbers have consistently increased for Despite Groupement FLE’s fi ndings (see box),
French in Normandy www.frenchinnormandy.com “We are expecting the Swiss to remain our main
too, notes Eleri Maitland, with their DELF and DALF market,” says Mathilde. “Europe is supposed to grow
exam preparation courses, which “we get an ex- as we launched new programmes that correspond to
tremely high success rate”, helping to drive growth. what they are looking for.” Asia, however, has been
There was a decrease in student numbers and less consistent. “It is dropping due to competition es-
weeks last year for France Langue www.france- pecially in our main cities like Paris. We are spending a
langue.fr, meanwhile, notes Mathilde Brouillet. How- lot of marketing budget on getting that market back.”
ever, “We have noticed an increase in total turnover,” German student numbers are holding fi rm for
she adds, and the market has continued to pick up IFALPES, notes Stéphanie, possibly due to the
in 2019. New work and travel visa agreements with school’s Bildungsurlaub accreditation status. Swiss
certain student markets has had a positive impact, numbers are steady too however the number of Brit-
she adds. ish enrolments are in decline.

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