About us

In 2000, Cultival was launched by Thibault Manchon, organising guided backstage tours of iconic Parisian theatres. A whole new audience was thus introduced to the stagecraft and history of these theatrical venues via the Stage Door. Be it school groups, community organisations or members of works councils, all were fascinated by this look behind the scenes, which in turn often left them wanting to then go to see the show itself. A new audience was thus captivated and captured, ensuring success for Cultival and, more importantly, for the theatres too!

Enjoying the support of Jean-Paul and Alain Belmondo at the Théâtre des Variétés, the concept then took hold with Jérôme Savary at the Opéra-Comique, Robert Hossein at the Théâtre Marigny, Jean-Claude Brialy at the Bouffes Parisiens before reaching the Théâtre de l’Athénée, the Comédie des Champs-Elysées and the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin.

Driven by this dynamic, and just three years after its launch, Cultival won the contract for the overall operation of the guided tour service at the Palais Garnier. The following year, Cultival was approached by the company operating the Eiffel Tower to create an alternative tour that would entice local and repeat visitors in the off-season.

After this came the Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie, the National Museum of Natural History, the Fondation Pierre Bergé – Yves Saint Laurent, the Hôtel des Invalides and the Centre Pompidou, amongst others.

Thibault Manchon
Founder - President
Sibylle Confland
Associate Director General

Elisabeth Langeois
Operations Director
Mélanie Thomas
Marketing Director
Stéphanie Corceiro
Sales Manager
Isabelle Rovelas
Accounting Manager

Teams

Operations Team

The Operations Team, which is comprised of 7 people, manages the booking and scheduling of the guides with a multilingual team (French, English, Spanish, German, Italian and Russian). Each of its members is fully in control of all the tours on offer as well as the related services (changing facilities, catering, etc.). Organised through a booking centre that is open 5 days a week, the division has a back-up service available at the weekend. This booking platform allows for visitors to access information and reservation options, to make bookings and changes, as well as the billing and collection for the tour offerings. The management of the after-sales service is also carried out by the operations division.
Marketing Team

The Marketing Team is comprised of 6 people and manages partner prospecting and loyalty development programmes. It develops and implements operational marketing tools so as to optimise and enhance the visibility of the cultural offerings on the sales networks, including the communications media, field marketing, direct marketing, digital marketing, etc., and to a client-base consisting of schools, groups and individual.
Sales Team

The Sales Team, which is comprised of 6 people, manages the prospecting and indexing of Cultival’s tours, prepaid, events and ticketing offerings. Each team member develops and supports a database of over 25,000 B2B contacts in both France and abroad by participating and canvassing at trade shows, workshops and sales field trips.
Accounting Team

The Accounting/Human Resources Team, which is composed of 3 people, manages all aspects related to the bookkeeping and payment of commission fees on behalf of partner establishments and sites. This team also manages human resources, including the recruitment, training and the payroll of the Cultival teams in the headquarters as well as the guides.
Our guides

Cultival has significant human resources available, with no less than 75 employees in the field. The 60 Cultival guides are selected for their skillsets and the languages that they speak (10 languages in total: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Russian, Arabic, Chinese and Japanese) in order to ensure the best possible tour experience at each partner site. Facilitators and cashiers complete this dynamic and professional team, which are employed on a part-time basis while being the direct responsibility of Cultival.

Why Paris? The capital of France – a flagship destination of global tourism

This year, France is expected to feature amongst the most visited countries in the world, with an expected 85 million tourists, which is more than its entire population. This ongoing popularity every year is a result of the immeasurable attractiveness of the City of Light, as wells as its rich and diverse regional heritage. Its historic quarters are so deeply engrained in its DNA that taking just a single step can carry you back through the centuries: Paris stands out as an absolute must of global tourism. Paris thus has more than 20 million visitors a year. The city lies in a strategic location in the heart of Europe and has a large transport network that draws some tens of millions of passengers.