Prime Minister François Bayrou established an objective of 100 billion euros in international tourist income generated in 2030 on Thursday, July 24, and a train of measures to achieve this during an Interminiisterial Tourism Committee in Angers.
Despite a record of 100 million foreign visitors welcome in 2024, France is currently only the fourth in the world in terms of tourist income, with 71 billion euros in 2024, according to the Government.
Many visitors, but less recipes
In comparison, Spain, which has fewer visitors than France, registered 126 billion euros in revenues linked to international tourism in 2024. Due to the duration of the average stay in France of a foreign tourist is shorter in France than in Spain, according to a study by the European Commission. Even if France welcomes more tourists, they remain less for a long time and, therefore, spend less money.
To remedy this situation, France must invest more, renew its hotel fleet and accommodation and seek to better meet tourist expectations, according to Dominique Marcel, president of the France Tourism Alliance, to “move from a volume approach to a value approach”
Because for him, this limit of 100 million foreign visitors crossed in 2024 does not “mean much, since the important thing is tourist spending,” he recalled in early July.
Especially because in the number of past nights in the territory, France is not the first: with 138.5 million foreigners during the night registered in tourist accommodation establishments in 2023, France is third in Europe behind Spain (301.7 million) and Italy (234.3 million) and before Greece (123 million).
Source: BFM TV
