France retained its title as the world’s top tourist destination in 2006, attracting 78 million visitors in the face of growing competition from other destinations, the Tourism Ministry said on Tuesday.
Rising numbers of visitors from Spain, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and east European countries contributed to a 2.7 percent increase in the number of tourists compared with 2005.
Chinese tourists are also flocking to France in growing numbers, with 600,000 visiting the country last year.
Tourism revenues rose 2.5 percent from 34 billion euros in 2005, according to the ministry’s estimates.
That is good news for a sector which employs some 2 million people directly or indirectly and accounts for 6.5 percent of the gross domestic product of the euro zone’s second biggest economy.
The Tourism Ministry said some 846,000 workers were employed in hotels, cafes and restaurants at the end of the third quarter of 2006, an annual increase of 2.5 percent compared with the 1 percent rise seen at a national level across all sectors.
“That means 19,200 jobs were created, the highest number in five years,” it said in a statement.
Leading French hotel groups such as Accor and smaller ones such as Hotel Regina Paris SA have already reported a rise in sales in 2006, helped by a strong final three months of the year.
