The origins ...
During the spring of 1977, the two divisions "buses" and "travel agencies" of Transports CITROËN / CITER formed a new holding company jointly with Transports Verney: Compagnie Financière et Industrielle de Transports (CFIT). Yves-Michel Verney was appointed to head the new group. The fleet was a total of 1800 vehicles and 1000 freight vehicles with a network of travel agencies and tourism offices.
By 1967, Citroën wanted to develop its travel agency business and self=drive car hire. Transports Citroën launched a chain of travel agencies in Paris and major provincial cities as CITER. A new agency network was created, following the consolidation of the activities of CITER-Transports Citroën and Transports Verney, allowing development and expansion of a new network of travel agencies. The branch network of CITER was complimented by the tourist offices of Transports Verney (including STAO) whose activities were based on the organisation and sale of tourist programmes by coach.
Subsequently a number of Verney travel agencies worked with CITER to offer a seamless network of branches called: NORD-SUD VOYAGES following the advantageous transfer of the license CITER A 593. These offices tended to become travel agents with a comprehensive service for the distribution and sale of tourism products. This formed a network of 36 outlets integrated with four agencies sub-contracted under a franchise agreement.
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 holiday travel programmes was made by the tour operator Voyages MALISSARD under the brand ‘Plein Sud’ with two destinations: Spain and Switzerland. This had no impact on the activity of other tour operators as it essentially was place-to-place stays (apartments, villas, hotels) designed for motorists and their families.
Tourisme Verney developed coach travel holiday programmes. All tours were arranged from a provincial town or region where the group had a bus-operating infrastructure. The travel agencies therefore used to sell these holidays with an expansive range of starting points. These programmes were presented in a catalogue "Tourism Verney, a pleasure to see in a coach" whose design and implementation was under the direction of Marc Verney.
CITER / NORD-SUD VOYAGES took a dominant position in the business of tourism: incentive travel, study, business travel and public relations, conferences, seminars and technical visits. Because of the 2000 coaches, NORD-SUD VOYAGES moved towards group tourism by coach.
LAUNCH OF T.V.D.
The travel agencies TVD were created in the 1980s under the same name.
The Tourisme Verney Distribution network consisted of 79 branches with a series of major partners such as Air France.
They sold travel products by the tour operator, with them presented in brochures.
TVD was taken over by Havas and Pret-a-Partir in 2008.
The travel agencies – Tourisme Verney Distribution (TVD)
(Click on the underlining to view pictures)
