If the number of holidaymakers who stayed in France is increasing in 2024, France has just lost its title as a world leader in tourism. Because foreign tourists do not stay long enough and spend less money. For several reasons. Explanations.
Cocorico! They are 100 million foreign tourists to have stayed in France in 2024, an increased figure compared to the previous year. Good news except that these tourists do not stay long enough and spend little money during their vacation in France.
For many tourists, therefore, France would only be a country of passage: “We would like people to stay longer”, admits this Friday on RMC Dominique Marcel, the president of the France Tourism Alliance.
As a result, in terms of tourist recipes, France is now behind Spain and the United States. Tourism in France works mainly thanks to the French therefore, which represent 2/3 of the tourist expenditure for a sector which represents 5 to 8% of GDP.
Why does France stagnate?
And if France stagnates, it would be a story of money: “Foreigners consume less because it has become very expensive, a restaurant with my wife and my two children, it is quickly more than 200 euros while the purchasing power stagnates”, assures RMC Story Guillaume, entrepreneur in the Var.
“It’s too expensive”, abounds Viriginia, which manages a concierge in the Gard and takes care of tourist rentals. “The owners want too much about their goods, we have to adjust with the price of platforms which means that the rentals cost a lot of money. The traders also increase their price, do not open on weekends and close at 7:00 pm,” she deplores. As a result, “tourists, the next year, do not come back”.
“We consider that tourism in France, it goes without saying. We are good, we consider that it is an annuity, but there is still work”, tackles Dominique Marcel.
“Tourism is working well but it should work better and we should not be overtaken by our neighbors,” added the president of the France Tourism Alliance.
The most visited French regions are the Île-de-France region, the Côte-d’Azur and the Alps. Brittany also remains a privileged region and the west “is in full development”.
How to improve?
And to keep foreign tourists, we must invest and modernize: “We must also renovate our offer, offer a more qualitative, that it adapts to the new expectations of tourists”, warns Dominique Marcel. These expectations are “more nature, more calm, experiences and we want to be taken care of more individually, be accompanied”.
The offer must be registered in the environment, ecology and anchored in the territories to benefit local populations, some of which are hostile to tourism in certain territories.
To support tourists, you also have to train the staff: “What tourists ask is that we treat them in an individualized way. And for that it takes trained personnel. We have made efforts but we must do more, the training is not developed enough”, deplores Dominique Marcel.
