Described as “Crédit Agricole’s smile” by its CEO, this subsidiary also had a very positive impact on the Group’s image. While the Group now focuses on its role in the transformation of society, looking back at this original experience shows that, even outside the banking sector, Crédit Agricole has been decisive in opening up the world to a large part of the French population.

Crédit Agricole outside banking

The 1960s and 1970s were a period of great expansion for Crédit Agricole: geographically, it began to operate more and more outside its traditional rural areas of activity; in finance, the creation of specialised subsidiaries and State authorisations allowed it to operate in new sectors, from housing to the financing of agricultural exports; and finally, Crédit Agricole tested activities outside traditional banking businesses, from IT consultancy with the subsidiary Sincro to leasing with Unicomi and Unicar. 

It was in this context that the Puy-de-Dôme regional bank bought a large travel agency in Clermont-Ferrand in 1970. The CEO of the Caisse Nationale, Jacques Mayoux, was interested and decided to make it a national subsidiary: he had been considering using the strength of the Crédit Agricole network to diversify its activity for several years. A complex organisational model was adopted: the head office remained in Clermont-Ferrand while the administrative departments were located in Paris. The Board of Directors was supported by a technical liaison committee made up of eight CEOs of the regional banks chosen to fairly represent the major French regions. The regional banks acquired a stake in the capital of Voyage Conseil and provided the subsidiary with a “local technical office”, while marketing was carried out by the Caisse Nationale’s Promotion department. The regional banks were enthusiastic about the project and it grew from 18 members in 1972 to 60 in 1977.

The management of the company was entrusted to Pierre Amalou, who brought his expertise in the tourism industry. A former freight forwarder in Senegal and Mexico in the 1950s and 1960s, he was the CEO of Club Vacances when he was hired. He remained in office until 1980 and Voyage Conseil benefited from his vision and the particular positioning he adopted for the company.

An undeniable impact on society

A marketing study was carried out in 1972 to identify the customer base that could be interested in holidays sold within Crédit Agricole’s scope of operations. It turned out that there was considerable potential since it addressed a population segment that had not previously had access to this type of product, namely farmers and people living in rural areas more generally. However, it was still necessary to remove the psychological barriers that prevented many people from considering this type of expense and leisure activity. Crédit Agricole’s tightly woven network of branches and its relationship model allowed it to penetrate this market by offering new products under the Voyage Conseil brand.

Voyage Conseil’s credo was as follows: “If we’ve rightly said that Crédit Agricole democratised banking, we can say today that Voyage Conseil democratised travel.” Two complementary goals were identified to achieve this: “opening the world to rural people” and “allowing French and foreign city dwellers to discover rural France [...], green France”. This positioning allowed Crédit Agricole to pursue two objectives: to offer a new product to its traditional customers in rural areas and thus enrich their living environment and to contribute to the profitability of tourist facilities in “green France”, which Crédit Agricole often financed.

For its publicity, Voyage Conseil relied on the Crédit Agricole branches, where tourism advisors guided prospective customers. Meetings for depositors and cooperative shareholders were also held in some regional branches to advertise the holidays. Films were shown to “give everyone a taste for travel”. Voyage Conseil also took into account one of the specific features of agricultural and rural customers: in the 1970s, they preferred to travel in groups originating from the same town or region. It could therefore rely on word of mouth from those returning from its trips to promote its products. Initial investments in publicity were minimal as advertising was seen as a waste by CEO Amalou. He preferred to rely on a catalogue published twice a year, which was “very sober and not at all eye-catching” and was more like a collection of pricing tables. Later, more efforts were made in this area, including the publication of a series of travel guides.

In terms of the number of travellers, Voyage Conseil’s beginnings were a dazzling success: between 1973 and 1978, just over one million people travelled thanks to its products. The societal transformation initiated by Voyage Conseil can be illustrated by the following figure: in 1978, more than 50% of its customers were farmers or pensioners, i.e. people out of reach of traditional travel agencies. Similarly, in 1974, for 91% of customers, it was their “first experience of organised travel”! A year later, this proportion has already fallen to 77%. 

The strength of this market penetration was also reflected in the competitive landscape: as early as 1976, Voyage Conseil was the second largest distributor of package holidays behind Havas Voyage and the third largest producer of organised trips. Finally, the regional economic impact can be measured by looking at the number of local airports used, which rose from 15 in 1974 to 50 in 1979. For many of Voyage Conseil’s clients, their first package holiday was also their first flight.

The power of the network

The 1980s saw the gradual decline of Voyage Conseil. This is assumed to be due to the following causes: an overly complex organisation within Crédit Agricole, a change in tourist consumption patterns, and finally, a series of lawsuits brought by the travel agency union, the SNAV, which considered that the use of Crédit Agricole’s branch network was unfair competition. The company ceased trading in 1988, but Crédit Agricole did not stop financing tourism.

Apart from the financial results, this experience was very positive for the Crédit Agricole Group. Its foray into tourism gave it a “smiling”, welcoming image. Bringing new products to a segment of the population that was previously excluded from this market enabled it to assert its role as a transformer of society. Finally, the use of the network for a non-banking activity served as a training ground for the subsequent rollout of other services, including insurance.

* Source of this article:
Pascal Pénot, "La société Voyage-Conseil, le sourire du Crédit Agricole" in Hubert Bonin et Laure Quennouëlle-Corre (dir.), Explorer les archives et écrire l'histoire : autour de Roger Nougaret, Droz, 2022, pp. 603-624.