France, the world’s most visited in 2013 – Les Echos

France, the world's most visited in 2013 – Les Echos

With 84.7 million foreign tourists visit in France last year, France retained its position as the leading tourist destination in the world.

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“Douce France” which is over and continue to delight tourists in 2013, 84.7 million foreign visitors set foot in France, with growth in arrivals were up 2% compared to 2012 A score that made France the country most visited in the world, far ahead of the United States (69.8 million visitors), and Spain (60.7 million).

In their annual study released Monday, the General Directorate for Competitiveness, Industry and Services (DGCIS) and the Bank of France show that Europeans were the first to visit the country (1.2%). “They contribute to half of the growth in tourist arrivals in France” , reports the paper. 13 million Germans (6.5%) and 12.6 million Britons (3.4%) were thus made in France last year. And while Belgian customers, Luxembourg, Italy and Spain are fewer, Irish, Portuguese and Greeks are back in France. More surprisingly, the presence of Spaniards and Italians, large regular, has declined by 12 and 3%. Against the performance-related, according to DGCIS and the Bank of France, the “persistent economic difficulties in these two countries where GDP fell in 2013 as in 2012,” .

Asian customers is waiting for you

Outside Europe, North America is the first customer of France, a position strengthened in 2013 with “a 5.8% increase in tourist arrivals” , and after a decline of 7.8% in 2012 Similarly, “with 6.6 million tourists from the Americas, the record level set in 2011 (6.7 million) is almost back to “.

Finally, always faithful to the Hexagon Asian tourists were more numerous in 2013: 4.5 million, a 13% increase over 2012 Chinese tourists, whose number has doubled between 2009 and 2013 continue to show a strong interest in France, which was not denied in 2013 with 1.7 million visitors, an increase of 23.4%.

Japanese customers were down 6.7% a figure that reflects the “context of weaker yen versus the euro” .

Longer stays

The study also noted that foreign tourists visiting the Hexagon in 2013 have generally increased the length of their stay, which stood at 7.1 nights, against 6.9 However in 2012, the number of nights spent in accommodation fee has increased more slowly than the number of nights spent in France (3.2% against 4.6%), and commercial accommodation accounted for 67.1% of . all nights in 2013, against 68% in 2012 and 69.6% in 2007

Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain this phenomenon: “Global Economic Crisis “, which encourages consumers to reduce spending. An economy that often goes with a decrease in “accommodation”, where margins are easily achieved via an accommodation with the family or friends, or sharing apartments. On the other hand, DGCIS and the Bank of France estimate that ‘offer of accommodation merchants, including hotel, perhaps not fully in line with the expectations of foreign tourists’ , based on a study conducted by the DGCIS 2012 During the recent Tourism Conference, the government has also introduced some thirty measures to improve the stay of tourists in France, and to boost the sector.