With millions of tourists expected to visit over the peak summer season, France has announced a plan to better manage tourist numbers at its most popular historic sites and natural treasures.
France's Tourism Minister, Olivia Grégoire, laid out a strategy this week to regulate high-season crowds that threaten "the environment, the quality of life for locals, and the experiences for its visitors".
In an interview with Le Figaro newspaper she said France – the world's biggest tourist destination – needed better data to identify the most at-risk sites and encourage visitors to choose less popular times or places.
France's tourism industry is set to boom again this summer, as international travel rebounds from Covid restrictions.
Paris said last week it expects 37 million tourists this year, just short of the pre-pandemic level of 38.5 million in 2019.
Iconic sites overwhelmed
Many of France's most popular tourist destinations outside the capital, such as the Mont-Saint-Michel abbey in Normandy, say they are overwhelmed by the number of visitors.
On the northern beach of Etretat – which experienced a surge of visitors thanks to the hit Netflix detective series "Lupin" – the 1,200 residents see up to 10,000 tourists a day in the high season.
"This massive influx ends up trampling and eroding the cliffs and endangers the beach cliffs," Shai Mallet, co-head of the Etretat Tomorrow residents' organisation, told the French news agency AFP.
She also lamented the lack of benefits for the town's economy, with many visitors staying just a few hours and skipping local restaurants or hotels.
📣En raison de la très forte affluence ce jour et lors de ce weekend de l'ascension, nous vous conseillons de retarder votre venue au #MontSaintMichel.
— Etablissement public du Mont Saint-Michel (@EPMontStMichel) May 19, 2023
Pour un meilleur confort de visite, privilégiez les créneaux avant 10h ou après 15h.@Gendarmerie_050 @Prefecture50 pic.twitter.com/0s3fOYLAMF
Some French tourist towns have opted to cap visitor numbers, such as the island of Brehat in Brittany. The mayor of the island, which is home to less than 400 permanent residents, announced last week that day-trippers would be limited to 4,700 during the peak summer months.
And the Calanques national park near Marseille has said visitors will have to reserve a slot in advance to visit the famed Sugiton coves, using a free booking system that was first implemented during the Covid-19 pandemic and will remain in place for the next five years.
The site, which has suffered badly from erosion, now lets in just 400 people per day in July and August, compared with up to 2,500 previously.
Drawing tourists off the beaten path
The tourism ministry says it will set up an industry monitoring group to identify vulnerable sites and develop strategies to raise awareness of the risks of overtourism.
"It's up to the government, working hand in hand with regional officials and tourist sites, to implement measures for informing tourists and locals, and to help manage the crowds," Grégoire said.
These might include enlisting social media "influencers" to encourage people to seek sites off the beaten path or make trips outside the summer months.
But higher lodging taxes or access fees could also be in store to help communities cope with the costs of welcoming throngs of visitors.
"We have to protect fragile areas – we've lost 30 percent of our biodiversity in 25 years," said Didier Arino, head of the Protourisme advisory group.
"We need a concerted tourism development strategy so that this influx spreads itself out in terms of destinations and seasons," he said.
The government acknowledges that 80 percent of annual tourism activity is concentrated on just 20 percent of the country – hence the push to encourage visitors to discover less well-known parts of France.
(with AFP)
