"With 84.7 million foreign tourists in 2013, France remains the most visited country in the world." It is with the good news that the Ministry of Economy welcomed Monday, August 11 dynanisme of French tourism, which does not seem to know the crisis.
The indicator chosen by the General Directorate of the competitiveness of industry and services (DGCIS) is indeed clear: France is well ahead of the United States and Spain in terms of tourist arrivals.
Proceeds from the traditional annual survey of visitors from abroad (EVE), this figure is in line with data from international agencies, as shown below.
These performances are drawn by the Grand Paris, the first tourist destination in the world (47 million visitors) to London (35 million), but also by region Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (PACA).
Maintaining an annual growth of 2% (under realistic forecasts of the World Tourism Organization), the target of 100 million tourists set by the foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, should be reached in 2022 . the progress of tourism should be based on the influx of increasingly massive Asian customers. The Chinese still account for only 2% of the tourists, but the figure was up by 23.4% year on year.
US President Barack Obama has set the same goal of 100 million tourists to the United States, but to ... 2021.
If it is a figure that the Ministry of Economy is careful not to mention, is that the revenue generated by the influx of foreign tourists. With 20% more visitors, the French tourism generates three times less money than American tourism - which is explained by the demographic importance of the United States, where domestic tourism mechanically produced more revenue.
More worrisome: more comparable demographics, France barely harvest as much money as Spain, which receives far fewer tourists.
Indeed, the very good numbers of tourist arrivals on French territory mask a more complex reality: many of them are just passing in the geographical crossroads is France, not necessarily stay there and eat it. The peninsular decreases the extent of this phenomenon for Spain.
If the figure of 84.7 million tourists touted by the Ministry does not include "trippers" that is, visitors who do not spend the night in France, it does not reflect the actual number provided tourists as explained in a note INSEE 2008 (PDF). In 2007, nearly one in five tourist was in reality only through the country en route to another destination
ref. http://www.lemonde.fr/