France remains the head of tourism Destinations

                  Crédits photo: françois BOUCHON/Le Figaro

IN PICTURES - With 83 million foreigners received in 2013, according to the World Tourism Organization, France is ahead of the United States and Spain. This development is supported by the European Union statistics on the number of nights.

Despite concerns about the loss of competitiveness of the French tourism industry, the results of 2013 are encouraging. According to the World Tourism Organization, international tourist arrivals grew by 5% last year to reach a record $ 1.087 billion. France remains the leader as it moves more than average (6%) received 83 million with a comfortable lead over the United States (67 million) and Spain (60.6 million) foreign. By the way, this barometer confirms that country where tourism spending explodes as China, Russia and Brazil. 
The EU statistics confirms the good results in French a broader approach. Refer to the total number of overnight stays in tourist accommodation, adding stays of foreign tourists and local customers. Once again, the European market as a whole grew by 1.6% and up to 5% when only interested in foreign tourists. Moreover, apart from 2008-2009 recorded in the hollow of the financial crisis, this figure is constantly growing. 

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Competition the Greek and Spanish 
In its ranking of Europe at 28, France rose to 405.2 million overnight stays well ahead of Spain (386,5), Italy (363), Germany (355.3) and the UK (319.9) . Only our country weighs more than 15% of the European total! In this ranking, however, France increased slightly lower (1.1%) than the market average (+ 1.6%). However, it remains dynamic for the reception of foreign tourists (5.6%, where the locals down 1%), but less than Greece (+ 13.2%) and the UK (16.7% ). It also saves almost half of overnight stays by foreign tourists (132 200 000) the Spanish neighbor (251.9 million). 
With the turmoil of the Arab Spring, the resurgence of European tourism in southern Europe confirms the reading performance of Greece and Spain. Italy, however, is one of the few countries clearly decreased (-4.6%), both welcoming foreigners (-0.5%) than for domestic customers (-8.3%). 
This European charts also have the merit of reminding foreign customers still in the minority: it represents 45% of the nights, on average, 33% in France and to only 20% in Germany. By contrast, foreign tourists accounted for 79% of the nights in Greece and 93% in Cyprus. It can lead to 96% in Malta and 98% for Liechtenstein.

source: lefigaro.fr