Last year, France welcomed 89.4 million foreign visitors, marking an increase of 3% compared to 2017, and setting a new attendance record.
The government aims to welcome 100 million international tourists by the end of 2020.
Until now, only Insee, in April, had released official attendance figures for 2018, reporting a total of 438 million overnight stays (combined by both French and foreign visitors) in the country’s tourist accommodations.
The statistical institute pointed out that although the attendance was record-breaking, it could have been even better without the spring transport strikes and, particularly, the “yellow vests” movement that affected the hotel industry in December.
For 2018, international visitors’ expenditures were estimated at 56.2 billion euros, a 5% increase year-over-year, reaching their highest historical level.
The majority of foreign tourists (79%) come from Europe.
CONTRASTED START TO 2019
Despite a more contrasted start to 2019 (a 5.6% decrease in attendance in the first two months of 2019 compared to the same period in 2018), hotel industry professionals remain optimistic according to the confidence index measured by Insee, which showed improvement in March.
