Tourism: towards a new record this year in France – Le Parisien

August 20, 2015, 5:51 p.m. | Updated: August 20, 2015, 5:51 p.m.

(AFP ) – The tourist season in France should beat a new world record attendance this year with a higher influx of tourists to 85 million, said Thursday the Minister of Foreign Affairs, in charge of tourism, Laurent Fabius.

“We are going in 2015 to a new world record for tourism,” he said at a press conference, adding that this was the first indications of trends.

In the first quarter tourist traffic measured in overnight stays increased overall by 2% and 3.6% for foreign customers. In the second quarter, calendar effects have been particularly positive, hotel occupancy increased by 2.3% compared to last year.

This summer, business surveys and surveys professional show “excellent” trends, Mr Fabius said. Thus, the professional satisfaction rate reached 74% in the PACA region and in Brittany. In Normandy, professionals believe that attendance will be better this year than last year, while 2014 had already set a record with the 70th anniversary of the landing. The professional sales would have increased by 4 to 4.5% this summer, “but this overall figure masks contrasting realities within the profession,” said the Minister. If the hotel occupancy rate increased by example more than 2% in July on the Atlantic coast and more than 6% on the French Riviera, Paris intramural appears however disappointing figures, probably due to competition from Airbnb. Some sectors are booming, such as outdoor catering (+ 9%) year on year, amusement parks (+ 6% to + 10%) or river cruises (+ 10%).

The new hosting trends are also booming, with an increase of 25% Airbnb customers in the first half compared to the whole year 2014.

Several factors explain this success . On the economic plane, the weather conditions were very favorable this summer and the fall of the euro has encouraged foreign tourism. The French have also “largely chose France”. “Unfortunately the dreaded insecurity in the South played a role with a deferral of foreign and French clients on the Hexagon,” said Fabius. But these results are also, he says, “the fruit of efforts by professionals, and the general climate that we have created.” The number of visas issued has increased 17% since the beginning of the year.

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