[2] It was created by merging Maison de la France, an agency that promotes the French culture abroad, and ODIT France, a tourism engineering company.
[3] This merger brought together all the functions of promotion[4] including campaigns, press campaigns, canvassing and tourism engineering such as diagnosis, development plans, project management assistance etc.
[5] The agency is placed under the supervision of the Minister of Tourism, Government of France.
Its status as an economic interest group reflects the desire to carry out the public service mission of the Ministry of Tourism in partnership with the State, Central Administrations and local authorities, and the tourism professions, including the major French and foreign industrial and commercial groups involved in tourism.
As of 2023, Atout France has total 1,200 partners both from public and private tourism professionals.