Tourism in Paris remains driven by international visitors

By

Anne-Sophie Savenier

Published
May 14, 2014

"We are very pleased with the results, which are the fruit of a collective effort.” This is how Jean-François Martins, deputy mayor of Paris responsible for sport and tourism, described tourism numbers to Greater Paris according to the latest report conducted by the Convention and Visitors Bureau of Paris. With 29.3 million tourists to Paris proper and 46.8 million tourists to Greater Paris, the French capital remains the most-visited city in the world by tourists.

For the first time, the report includes Paris’ three inner suburbs, in an aim to present a more relevant picture of tourism trends in the French capital.

The result? In 2013, the city enjoyed excellent tourism numbers marked by strong growth in international visits: +7.2% for hotel stays - greater than the global average of international tourist arrivals which rose by 5% according to the World Tourism Organization.

The figure underscores Paris’ attractiveness to non-Europeans arriving from distant markets, such as China, Australia and the Middle East, where growth was over 15%. The United States, meanwhile, set the bar, representing the biggest numbers in France with 1.85 million visitors, up 15%. Not surprisingly, the number of visitors from the Middle East also shows double-digit growth: 452,000 hotel arrivals, up 21%.

However, the economic crisis in Europe weighed heavily on the tourist activity of the French themselves, as well Europeans at large. Business travel has been especially hard hit, accounting for 42.50% of hotel arrivals, as compared with 46.7 % in 2012.

There has been a decline (-8.6%) of hotel stays by domestic tourists, bringing the number to 10.9 million. The same applies to Spain (-2.9%), Italy (-3.5%) and the Netherlands, which demonstrate a decline in the number of overnight stays in the capital.

When all countries of origin take together, however, visits remain stable (-0.4%), maintaining the record level set in 2012, i.e. 22.6 million hotel stays, with a record 8 million between June and September, up 1.3 % compared to summer 2012.

As for the low season in January and February 2014, hotel stays decreased by a mere 1.3%. There was a decline of 6.4% for domestic stays, but once again a growth of 5.8% for international visitors.

With these results, the city of Paris is developing a new strategy for next year. "We don't think of tourism as a godsend that we're entitled to because Paris is an attractive city. Our new challenge is to stimulate the desire to return," says Jean-François Martins.

The city of Paris is thus working to improve standards in terms of: satisfaction (in terms of safety, transportation), the Parisian lifestyle, public events (so that there’s always something going on) and lodgings (in creating 6,000 new rooms in Paris and the inner suburbs by the end of the term to ensure a wide price range).