Tourisme Verney, one brand of a transport business
It is not uncommon to hear travellers and former employees talk about Tourisme Verney meaning the Group as a whole. This is a mistake, as Tourisme Verney was the brand representing the "Travel" side of things. This division was made up of two companies: TOURISME VERNEY & TOURISME VERNEY DISTRIBUTION providing activities including travel agencies, Tour Operators and the occasional coach charter. What is interesting is that Verney’s activities developed towards incoming and mostly a "group clientele".
The letters TV mean also TRANSPORTS VERNEY, but from 1977 it was also used for TOURISME VERNEY. The first coaches, of type LMC 12 B CBM, displayed this new name depicting travel and occasional charters by the Group.
The agencies
Following the acquisition of Transports Citroën in 1976 via Michelin, a chain of VERNEY travel agencies were regrouped around CITER, offering a comprehensive network of 36 branches: called NORD-SUD VOYAGES, following the transfer of the CITER A 593 license. The main locations were: Paris 8th, Paris 15th, Bordeaux, Brest, Dijon, Lille, Lorient, Lyon, Morlaix, Nantes, Quimper, Redon, Rennes, Saint Brieuc, Saint Nazaire and Strasbourg.
The production of travel programmes was done by the Tour Operator MALISSARD bearing the Plein Sud brand with programmes for two destinations: Spain and Switzerland. This had no impact on the activity of other Tour Operators since they were essentially origin / resort holidays (apartments, villas, hotels) designed for motorists and families.
Tourisme Verney developed touring coach programmes. All tours were organised from a city in a province or region where the group had coaching infrastructure. The agencies would be used to sell these programmes with a widening out of departure points. These programmes were presented in a brochure "Tourisme Verney, a pleasure to see by coach" whose design and realisation was under the leadership of Marc Verney.
CITER / NORD-SUD VOYAGES took a dominant position in the field of business tourism: stimulation trips, studies, professional and public relations trips, congresses, seminars and technical visits. With 2000 coaches available, NORD-SUD VOYAGES oriented towards group tourism by coach.
In January 1990, the NORD-SUD name disappeared when TOURISME VERNEY DISTRIBUTION was created, bringing together all the agencies under one sign and one common policy: all this was done during the creation of three Tour Operators (Lyon, Paris, Rennes). In the following years, these agencies were separated from the subsidiary companies: 40 out of 70 agencies were headed by a transport system manager; the latter can better concentrate on tenders in his department. The TVD agencies are differentiated between Havas (sale of all products) and Nouvelles Frontières (sale of its own products).
The Business Class
PRIVILEGE is the new travel range of Tourisme Verney, with three unique coaches. These were three FR 1 GTS, baptised Privilege by Renault Véhicules Industriels whose livery was designed by Toprieux. There were only ten FR1s produced, three of which were for the Verney company, whose history will be detailed later. The Privilège range was revived in the early 1990s, especially during the Olympic Games in Alberville 92. Privilège died in 1995.
Towards a bright future!
Yves Michel Verney believed strongly in a slow but effective development of his agencies: in an interview, an objective of a hundred agencies within five years was given. This objective would not be reached unfortunately, the number of branches reached 70 points of sale in January 1999. A "tourism department" is created to regroup distribution, production and occasional transport. The three Tour Operators are grouped together to just one, based in Rennes.
Everything is considered for the comfort of the traveller. The coaches are new, well maintained and of an excellent level of comfort for the time: the majority are composed of FR 1 or ILIADE. Initially there were 12-C LMCs and then 12-80 SMCs. Promotional items are handed out to customers in a wallet consisting of all the travel documents, hand wipes, etc ...
The Club Verney is launched in autumn 1994: it is for coach operators and travel agents located in areas where the Group has no presence. The chairman insists "bus operators must widen their buying and selling power to defend themselves against European competition". He is visionary, and sees the risk where others in general do not: "For me, the greatest danger is not that neighbouring countries come to pick up on our territory but that the resulting services are controlled by large foreign groups for whom transport is not the only activity. It would then become difficult for us to find beds for example. (17/12/1990 for Bus & Cars). His speech will be the same three years later, and we must consider his words as premonitory! This is six years before the appearance of the Euro. The Verney Group goes beyond the borders by taking over the Ski Lovers agency in London in 1989 (a TV delegation was placed there in 1993 until its closure in December 1998) and a second one in New York City in September 1997. Projects for Spain were in progress, but will not see the light.
The tourist coach fleet is reduced between 1997 and 1998 from 250 to 180 vehicles, as the explosion of bus tourism in the 1980s had led to much acquisition of vehicles.
The Verney Group, through its Tourism branch, participated in the major events of the period: Inauguration of EuroDisney (1992), Olympic Games of Albertville (1992 - Official Carrier), Florida 92, 40th anniversary of the D-Day landings (Official Carrier), Football World Cup (France 98) and others. Tourisme Verney does not hesitate to place various promotional films on its coaches for the likes of Hollywood Chewing-Gum & Fun Radio, NRJ for which a Scania is arranged as a radio studio, Dassault Aviation, Perrier, etc ...
TOURISME VERNEY died in 2008, but the name was on the coaches for ten years between 2002 and 2012 before finally disappearing.