After years plagued by Covid-19, France has seen a major return of European and American visitors who helped bring in record revenues in 2022.
At the end of December 2022, international tourism revenue in France was at €58 billion, up by €1.2 billion compared to 2019, according to a report published by France's national tourism development agency Atout.
This is explained by "the return of European and American customers" but also by price increases, which "mechanically increases revenue in value", says the report.
Nationals of three neighbouring European countries were among the foreign customers who spent the most in France in 2022 - Belgium (€7.3 billion), Germany (€6.5 billion) and the United Kingdom (€6.2 billion) - while he United States ranked fifth with €5.6 billion.
"France is strengthening its attractiveness in terms of tourism: there is a return of international tourists who have spent more money here," Tourism Minister Olivia Gregoire told the AFP news agency.
In terms of revenue from international tourism, Spain regained first place in Europe in 2022 - reaching €64.8 billion by the end of November.
📈Les touristes étrangers ont rapporté près de 58 milliards€ à l’économie française en 2022, en hausse par rapport à 2019.
— Olivia Gregoire (@oliviagregoire) February 28, 2023
Les capteurs sont au vert et confirment que 2022 a été une année exceptionnelle pour le tourisme en France.
En 2023, on continue 🚀https://t.co/ppCD9XZL3B
"The whole challenge for France is to strengthen the offer qualitatively so that we manage to increase the spending budget without losing the number of tourists," Grégoire said.
"We must also respond to the new expectations of tourists: sustainable tourism, four-season tourism in the mountains, 'savoir-faire' and so on," she added.
She insisted that heritage tourism packages across the country could be better developed with the "same level of quality in each of the regions".
For 2023, France, like the rest of the world, is looking forward the return of Asian tourists who were absent in 2022 (-31 percent compared to 2019).
France should also benefit from another tourist asset for the second half of the year: the 2023 Rugby World Cup due to start in September.
