French Travel News-2010/2011 | France remains number one for tourism

Tuesday, April, 19th at 13.35 by Joe Elvin
France is still the most popular tourist destination in the world, according to a report by the World Tourism Organisation.

The report which is drawn up every year showed that 78.95 million people chose to take French holidays in 2010, up from 74 million in the previous year.

It also revealed that The United States remained the second most popular country to visit last year, whilst China overtook Spain to finish in third.

Sources from The Connexion suggested that the boom in luxury hotels throughout the country was the main factor behind the increase in tourists visiting France. French tourism agency spokesperson, Stephanie Cadet, told the newspaper that a lot of work is being done to keep the country on top of the rankings for years to come.

She said: "The idea is to try to improve France's hotel offer so it is up to what you would expect from the world's top destination. For example if zero-star hotels want to be one-star ones, they will have to meet certain standards to be attributed it."

However, Press TV has reported on WTO predictions that France could be overtaken by China in the rankings as early as 2015.

Despite this, Cadet revealed that the French tourism industry was more concerned with the amount of money being put into the economy by tourists.

She stated that, despite attracting more tourists than any other country, France received less income from tourists than both The United States and Spain.

Still, the country certainly benefits from being able to provide both luxury beaches and excellent winter sports locations for tourists.