France Sees Double Digit Growth in Canadian Tourist Arrivals

Those in France’s tourism industry might be heard shouting “Vive les Canadiens” with the release of data that showed that Canadian tourist arrivals grew by double-digits in 2016.

Data from the recently released 2017 Mémento du Tourisme, an annual survey conducted by the French Government’s Direction Générale des Entreprises (Directorate General of Enterprises), showed that while overall tourism in France contracted by 2.2 per cent in 2016 due to the 2015 terror attacks, arrivals by Canadians tourists actually rose by 11 per cent to reach 1.125 million tourists, of which an estimated 386,000 are excursionists (touring or travelling around).

The average length of stay for Canadian visitors averaged 11 days—over four days higher than the overall foreign visitors’ average duration of 6.8 days. As a result, Canada is the 13th market for France in terms of arrivals, but ranks 10th in the total overnights spent in the country, totalling 11.4 million overnights in 2016.

France remains the most visited country in the world, with 82.6 million arrivals of international tourists in 2016 and ranks fifth worldwide in terms of tourism revenue at €38.4 billion.

Tourism spending in France increased to €159 billion in 2016, which represents 7.1 per cent of France’s gross domestic product or GDP, with Paris and île-de-France, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, New Aquitaine and Brittany being the five most visited regions by foreign travellers to France, in order of importance.

Atout France, France’s Tourism Development Agency in Canada, wishes to thank Canadian tourism professionals for their continued support and is reminding the industry of its upcoming tradeshow series Destination France 2018, in the first quarter of 2018, with stops in Quebec City (February 26), Montreal (February 27), Toronto (February 28) and Vancouver (March 1st). Information will be provided shortly and registration will open soon.

For trade information from Atout France, visit the trade section of their website.

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