Par
Fabien Hisbacq
Published on
17 oct. 2024 à 6h32
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For two years, the Nouvelles Marges* research firm analyzed 43 million views of Wikipedia pages of 1,600 small towns in France. In the end, this gives a ranking in which theOccitania cardboard. But not only…
Because the survey, if it aims to determine the interest shown in certain small towns, is also interested in the vectors which determine the weak or strong notoriety of a municipality. The goal was to provide answers to these questions:
- What about the notoriety of small towns compared to major cities on the most consulted online encyclopedia, Wikipedia?
- Which small towns benefit from the most notoriety? Is there favorable periods to this notoriety?
- Do some small towns experience digital invisibility?
- What are the issues for a small town to be visible on Wikipedia and how to improve your attractiveness ?
A digital showcase for municipalities
“If the choice to analyze consultations fell on Wikipedia, it is because it is the
first showcase for the municipalities and often the first result in the engines of
research”, estimates the Lab Nouvelles Marges which chose to look at the pages of 1600 municipalities which are part of the programs Small Cities of Tomorrow (small towns), Action Cœur de Ville (medium-sized towns) but also 22 French metropolises, between 1is January 2012 and 1is January 2023.
It is therefore not simply a question of knowing which pages are the most visited but of comparing the number of visits compared to the number of inhabitants of the municipality (visit/inhabitant), the size of the Wikipedia page (number of characters) and the number of contributors.
Small towns are doing very well compared to big ones.
However, for Nouvelles Marges, the results are “clear”. They demonstrate that, based on the criteria previously cited, “small towns are indeed those which benefit from the greatest number of consultations on Wikipedia. ” If everyone knows where to place a city like Toulouse on a map and has an idea of what we can see or find there, this is not the case for many small areas,” explains the firm. Hence this need for information.
Heritage, but also filming…
Nouvelles Marges has thus established the ranking of the 30 most visible small towns on Wikipedia. They are located throughout almost the entire metropolitan area and benefit from “regular notoriety” for tourist towns such as Etretat (Seine-Maritime) or Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port (Pyrénées-Atlantiques). Or more punctual for cities benefiting fromspecial attention to events such as visibility in the media during the Tour de France or programs dedicated to heritage
French, like Chambon-sur-Lignon (Haute-Loire) or even international film shoots like Carrouges (Orne).
The Pyrenees in force
But what we will remember is that in these 30 cities, almost half are in Occitania! There are 13. And among them, four in the Hautes-Pyrénées. The Pyrenean massif is also over-represented in this ranking with nine cities in all. Here is the national top 10 followed by the ranking of other cities in Occitania.
- 1. Etretat (Seine-Maritime)
- 2. Cordes-sur-Ciel (Tarn)
- 3. Cauterets (Hautes-Pyrénées)
- 4. Saint-Lary-Soulan (Hautes-Pyrénées)
- 5. Mont-Dore (Puy-de-Dôme)
- 6. Sancerre (Expensive)
- 7. Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port (Pyrénées-Atlantiques)
- 8. Castelnau-Magnoac (Hautes-Pyrénées)
- 9. La Roche-Bernard (Morbihan)
- 10. Lyons-la-Forêt (Eure)
- 12. The Angles (Pyrénées-Orientales)
- 13. Ax-les-Thermes (Ariege)
- 16. Font-Romeu-Odeillo-Via (Pyrénées-Orientales)
- 17. Laguiole (Aveyron)
- 19. Bagnères-de-Luchon (Haute-Garonne)
- 20. Meyrueis (Lozere)
- 25. Saint-Antoine-Noble-Val (Tarn-et-Garonne)
- 26. La Salvetat-sur-Agout (Hérault)
- 28. Arreau (Hautes-Pyrénées)
Dupont and knives also help
The page of Cordesa city with a remarkable heritage and which is still at the top of tourist towns, generated 110,827 visits in two years, details the Lab. Cauterets 97,820. For an equivalent size of municipality (around 800 inhabitants). Here, it’s the ski resort effect that comes into play. Castelnau-Magnoac was undoubtedly pulled from above by the Antoine Dupont effect to exceed 48,000 visits. For Laguiole (57 536), it is necessarily the name which is carrying, since it is shared with a famous knife.
A report in a news report can be enough to arouse widespread interest in a municipality, as when Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val records 1,500 visits following a report in the 1 p.m. news on France 2 (for 73,528 in two years).
And always the Tour…
As for the towns of the Pyrenees, they are certainly ski resorts, but not only that. There are five municipalities that have hosted the Tour de France in recent years. (Bagnères-de-Luchon, Cauterets, Castelnau-Magnoac, Font-Romeu-Odeillo-Via and Saint-Lary-Soulan). The latter, for example, recorded nearly 2,500 Wikipedia visits during the Tour on July 14, 2021 (the city was the arrival city).
Bagnères-de-Luchon also benefits from a jump in its consultations with 3,100 Wikipedia visits, during the simple passage of the Tour on July 14, 2021.
*Nouvelles Marges is a research firm specializing in the support and revitalization of territories, particularly specializing in small towns and fragile territories. To find the entire study, it’s here.
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