2023-06-21 13:48:00
Nearly three-quarters of French people “intend to go on vacation between June and September”, most of them in France, which augurs well for a record summer in terms of tourist numbers, the government said on Wednesday.
“73% of French people intend to go on vacation over these four months, an increase of 2% in terms of forecasts, compared to 2022”, declared during a telephone press briefing Olivia Grégoire, Minister Delegate for Tourism.
Among them, an identical proportion, i.e. “73%, favor local destinations (in France) and 60% plan a long stay” against 56% last year, she said, according to a joint survey carried out with a representative sample of the French population of 2,000 people by the tourism development agency Atout France, ADN Tourisme (tourist offices) and 11 regional tourism committees (CRT).
As for reservations, they are up 5% for the whole season, compared to the same date last year, and 18% for international customers. Unsurprisingly, the coast (42%) is the most popular destination, followed by the countryside (21%), the mountains (11%), urban areas (12%) and roaming (8%).
“It will be a summer where most certainly, I hope, we will probably exceed the 2019 record, we can be optimistic,” said Ms. Grégoire.
Since the beginning of the year, “the return of international customers has continued” with “international tourism receipts up 21% from January to April” compared to 2019, the reference year before the pandemic, reported the minister. Foreign tourists who spend the most come from Belgium, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Germany, said Caroline Leboucher, general manager of Atout France.
And flights from China have increased, from “16 weekly rotations in the spring, to 50 since June 10, more than with Canada, the United States and Germany”, according to Ms. Grégoire.
Already 2022 had been a record year in terms of international tourist receipts with nearly 58 billion euros, recalled the minister.
This threshold “should be exceeded in 2023, except for a major climatic or geopolitical event”, estimated the director general of Atout France.
In the hotel industry, the occupancy rate from January to May is already up 7.5% compared to 2022, to 70% on average, in metropolitan France.
21/06/2023 13:46:12 – Paris (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
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