France claims its status as the world’s leading tourist destination with a record of 100 million international visitors last year, which means 7.5% more than in 2022 and 10% more than in 2019, the year before the outbreak of the crisis. the covid.
The French Government, which this Tuesday organizes an interministerial committee dedicated to tourism in view of the Paris Olympic Games next summer, explains this Monday that income from international tourists in 2023 increased by 12% compared to the previous year and 11.8% if is compared to 2019, up to 63.5 billion euros.
In this case, based on the compared figures from the central banks, France was behind Spain, which obtained 84.9 billion euros in income from international tourists last year (+22.7% compared to 2022) but ahead of Italy (51.8 billion, +17.1%) and Germany (33.8 billion, +12.9%).
Starting in April, in all months of last year the collection that had been achieved before the covid crisis was exceeded in France.
As usual, the peaks were achieved in August, with 6.9 billion euros, and in July with 5.4 billion.
The strong increase in these incomes partly reflects the effect of inflation on tourist prices, but also the progression in the arrival of visitors from countries very close to France, such as the Belgians (+37%, compared to 2022), the Dutch ( +28%), Swiss (+23%) or British (+20%).
From other continents, the return of Americans was significant (+52% compared to 2019).
However, Asians remained much less numerous than before covid, despite the sharp increase compared to 2022: +70% for Japan and +30% for China.
The positive balance for France’s balance of payments from international travel reached a new record of 18.1 billion euros in 2023.
Source: Gestion
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