According to the latest figures on the industry, France has posted positive growth figures for holiday visitors as the country’s tourism industry – one of the largest in the world – continues its path toward pre-economic recession numbers.
France generally attracts the most holiday visitors of any country in the world, based off the appeal of Paris, but also due to the variety of experiences to be found in the nation, such as sunny beach holidays on the French Riviera or skiing the Alps during the winter season.
According to INSEE, a French institution for statistics and economic studies, hotels in Paris and across the nation attracted 192.2 million overnight stays in 2010, up 2.2 per cent from the previous year, though short of 2008′s pre-recession 197.6 million visitors.
The analysts found that much of the increase in hotel stays and visitors to the country can be accounted for by business travel.
“It’s a pretty rich clientele and made up mostly of business travellers coming into the big cities, notably Paris,” Louis de Gimel, head of research at INSEE, told Msnbc. “It’s perhaps this segment that has been less affected by the crisis.”
The researchers found fewer Britons heading across the channel, however.
“It’s not the same clientele at all,” he said. “We’ve seen a revival in the high category hotels, because in general Americans stay in higher-rated hotels.”
In related news, the Louvre in Paris has been found to be the most popular museum in the world according to attendance figures published by The Art Newspaper.
