French capital is seeing record number of rise in the tourist figures despite the fear of terrorism and Donald Trump’s warning of Paris being ‘out of control’.
Regional Tourism Authority (CRT) released the data for the first half of 2017 which suggests that Paris and the surrounding Île-de-France region are on the course of achieving the best ten-year tourism figures.
Hoteliers in the Paris region registered 16 million guests for the first half of this year – the highest number for the same period in the past decade – while visitors to the city and Île-de-France region rose by 14.6 per cent.
The terrorist attacks of November 13, 2015, which claimed 130 people, including 89 revellers at the Bataclan Theatre, the tourism industry was going through a tough period. The threat of terrorism in Paris prompted Donald Trump to describe the city as “so out of control, so dangerous”. Trump seemed to row back on those comments last month when he met the new French President, Emmanuel Macron, in Paris.
The US holidaymakers were one of the strongest contributors in Paris tourism – the other two being China and Japan, which were up 20 per cent, 29.5 per cent and 40.5 per cent respectively.
By contrast, the number of British holidaymakers sojourning in Paris is reported to have dipped by 1.7 per cent, which officials attributed to anxiety about Brexit. Frédéric Valletoux, President of the Regional Committee of Tourism Paris Ile-de-France said that the signals are clearly green for the tourism industry in Paris Ile-de-France.
