Petit Futé leverages affiliate marketing to expand its digital impact in the toursim sector

Interview with Jonathan Toutoux, head of partnerships at Petit Futé

Can you introduce Petit Futé and its mission in the guide market?

Petit Futé is a pioneering brand in the world of travel guides. Next year, we’ll celebrate our 50th anniversary. Historically, we were a print publisher. In 2000, we launched petitfute.com, which has grown into the number one media site for travel information.

We publish our content there and run digital advertising campaigns with our partners — via affiliate marketing, newsletters, or display ads. At the same time, we still produce around 800 guides covering destinations in France and abroad, as well as topics like cycling tourism. These guides also offer advertising opportunities for our partners.

What is your role at Petit Futé and what are your main responsibilities?

I’ve been part of the national advertising team for six years. We manage relationships with key accounts, as well as communication agencies, SEO agencies, and partners like Affilae.

Our approach is both national and international: we work on long-term campaigns with broad, multi-channel visibility. Additionally, Petit Futé has a large network of sales representatives across France and worldwide, promoting the guides locally to institutions such as museums and tourist offices.

What are the current and future challenges for Petit Futé?

The first challenge is generational. Petit Futé enjoys a positive image and strong brand affinity, but reaching a younger audience is crucial. Over the past two years, we’ve invested heavily in our presence on TikTok and Instagram, which has helped us make significant progress.

The second challenge concerns the integration of artificial intelligence. Currently, AI is used only to support our teams, never to replace our authors. Their human perspective is essential and forms part of Petit Futé’s DNA. We are exploring ways to use AI to enrich our content while maintaining our editorial standards.

How do you select partners and advertisers for your platforms?

For print guides, the rule is clear: we don’t offer advertising space to a business unless it has already been recommended by our authors. Promotion is always based on prior editorial endorsement.

For the website, we are open to a wider range of formats as long as they align with the travel universe. We sometimes collaborate with banks or insurance companies if there’s a direct connection to tourism. We also welcome creative approaches, provided they reflect our values.

What metrics do you use to measure the performance of affiliate marketing campaigns?

For every digital campaign, we provide partners with a comprehensive report: impressions, click-through rates, unique visitors, time spent on page, and more. This allows precise performance tracking.

For print guides, the main metric is circulation. We have reliable data on the reach of each guide, which also helps us adjust offerings according to client objectives.

Can you give an example of a successful affiliate marketing campaign in the toursim sector with Affilae?

One of our most successful partnerships was with Wyylde, over a year ago. We featured it in a specific section of the website dedicated to adult content, including listings of sexshops.

This segment, which we hadn’t previously explored, performed very well. The partnership integrated seamlessly into our editorial line while expanding our audience. It’s a great example of exploring new communication territories in a coherent way.

What advice would you give to tourism brands looking to start with affiliate marketing?

We offer a highly diversified solution, both in print and digital. Whether it’s national campaigns, targeted operations, acquisition tools, mini-sites hosted on our platform, or even custom guide creation, the options are abundant.

The most important step is to communicate with us to clearly define objectives. From there, we build a tailored strategy. Our flexibility and sector expertise allow us to meet a wide variety of needs.

What do you appreciate most about working with Affilae?

I’ve been working with Laurent for a year, and I’m very satisfied with the collaboration. Communication is smooth, the team is responsive, and the human connection is excellent.

The Affilae platform is also very intuitive. I picked it up quickly, without any tutorial. Laurent simply showed me two or three key features, and I’ve been able to manage campaigns independently. On the projects we’ve implemented together, I’ve seen real effectiveness — a true win-win collaboration.