Day 2452 (Saturday) 24th February 2024

This is Nice near La Reserve

and this is Villa and Gardens Ephrussi on Saint-Jean Cap-Ferrat.

Huw went up to the apartment to do some work and I stayed home – the weather wasn’t too bad but not nice enough to go anywhere and besides there’s rugby on this afternoon.

I found this article in The Local France…

France to keep crown as world's most-visited tourist destination

The beach at Arcachon, southwestern France. Photo by Thibaud MORITZ / AFP

Latest data on visitor numbers reveals that France will be the most-visited destination in the world in 2023, a title it has held (excluding the pandemic years) since 2014.

The World Travel & Tourism Council says that France is on course to be named 'most visited tourist destination in the world' for 2023, while the UN's World Tourism Organisation says that France's tourist numbers rebounded to pre-pandemic levels, with 99 percent of the visitor numbers seen in 2019. 

France was first named the world's most-visited destination in 2014 and held its crown until 2019. After the disruption caused by the Covid pandemic and subsequent travel restrictions, tourism began rebounding across the world in 2022, with 2023 recording pre-pandemic tourism levels in most places, according to the WTO. 

France and neighbouring Italy both saw 99 percent of their 2019 tourism numbers. 

Julia Simpson, WTTC President and CEO, said: “France's commitment to Travel and Tourism is not just reflected in the impressive data, but in the unwavering efforts of the government.

"President Macron recognises the real value Travel and Tourism brings to France in terms of the economy, jobs and its standing on the world stage. His support has ensured France remains the world’s most popular destination.”

France's aviation authority also revealed that air traffic in December 2023 had matched 2019 levels, for the first time since the pandemic.

Over the whole of 2023, passenger numbers in France amounted to 94.5 percent of the pre-crisis level, at just under 170 million, the DGAC authority said in its monthly statistics release.

The devastating impact of Covid-19 containment measures on air travel slashed French passenger traffic in 2020 to 30 percent of 2019 pre-pandemic levels.

It clambered back to 39 percent in 2021 and 80 percent the year after.

Last year's figure was boosted by international travel, with trips to the United States and other European Union countries around 2019 levels, while links with Africa were up 13 percent on four years before.

In 2023, France was particularly popular with the Spanish (up 64 percent compared to 2019), Canadians (+54 percent), Irish (+19 percent) and South Koreans (+16 percent), according to WTTC data. With 6.3 million visitors in 2023, the Eiffel Tower was also more popular than in 2019, according to its operating company Sete.

French tourism bosses are expecting 100 million visitors in 2024, with numbers expected to be boosted by events marking the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in June, followed by the Paris Olympics and Paralympics over the summer. 

Around 10 percent of France's total GDP comes from tourism - although only around 30 percent of this comes from international tourism, the rest is accounted for by France's strong 'staycation' culture, especially over the summer as millions of French people leave the cities and travel to the beaches or countryside. 

Will France stay on top?

The years 2020 and 2021 saw very few international tourists, for obvious pandemic-related reasons, although French people continued to holiday within France, while 2022 saw a rebound in visitors numbers but with fewer long-haul travellers, especially those from Asian countries where pandemic restrictions remained.

At this stage it doesn't seem that the pandemic has produced any lasting change in tourism trends, but it may have reinforced a couple of trends that were already emerging.

The desire for greener travel and flygskam (flight shame) has seen people cut back on long-haul destinations and choose trips closer to home.

This could benefit France with more Europeans choosing to travel there instead of jetting off to the Caribbean or Canaries, and France's excellent high-speed train network and emerging night train links are a nice alternative for people who prefer not to fly.

French rail operator SNCF had a record-breaking year in 2023, with 122 million passengers.

The other side of this coin, however, is tourist operators turning away from mass tourism and focusing instead on smaller numbers of high-spending visitors - often from the Middle or Far East. This trend was already quite pronounced among the luxury establishments in Paris, which have for many years focused on long-haul travellers.

One group who probably won't be visiting for a while, however, are wealthy Russians - a small number of whom had been regulars at luxury establishments in Paris and the Riviera for many years. Several Russian-owned super-yachts have been seized in French ports under EU sanctions rules. 

Meanwhile in the Alps, climate change means that ski seasons are increasingly disrupted by shortages of snow, leading operators to change their business model and try to tap into new markets, including summer Alpine tourism.