France regains its standards. The country garnered “record” revenues in 2022 thanks to international tourism, approaching 58 billion euros, but if it exceeds its pre-pandemic level it is still neck and neck with its great rival, the ‘Spain. “France is strengthening its attractiveness in terms of tourism: there is a return of international tourists who have spent more in France”, welcomed the Minister of Tourism Olivia Grégoire to Agence France-Presse.
“At the end of December 2022, international tourism receipts in France were up by 1.2 billion euros compared to their 2019 level”, according to a note on the situation published by the Atout France agency, responsible for promoting of French tourism abroad.
A result which is explained “by the return of European and American customers”, but also by price increases, which “which mechanically increases revenue in value”, according to Atout France.
Among the foreign customers who spent the most in France in 2022 are nationals of three bordering countries: Belgium with 7.3 billion euros, Germany with 6.5 billion and the United Kingdom with 6.2 billion. . The United States ranks 5th with 5.6 billion euros in cumulative spending in 2022.
In terms of receipts from international tourism, France remains ahead of Spain, which regains first place in Europe in 2022 since Madrid had already reached 64.8 billion euros at the end of November. It’s an old battle for the podium between the two countries: France prides itself on being the world’s leading destination ahead of Spain, while the latter is ahead of France in terms of international receipts.
According to Exceltur, the Spanish employers’ organization for the sector, the influx of foreigners fell by 14.6%, but their expenses only fell by 3.8% from January to November, thanks to longer stays. long and focused on more luxurious tourism products.
“The whole challenge for France is to strengthen the tourist offer on a qualitative level so that we manage to increase the spending budget without losing the number of tourists”, analyzes Olivia Grégoire.
“We have to respond to the new expectations of tourists: sustainable tourism, four-season tourism in the mountains, know-how tourism…”, she adds, and “which shows that we are on the right path is that the average revenue per night, the Revpar, increases by 7% in 2022 compared to 2019”.
Should we try at all costs to overtake Spain in terms of international revenue? “I’m not sure that’s desirable,” said Didier Arino, managing director of Protourisme. “Our destination has a good balance between domestic and foreign attendance,” he told Agence France-Presse. “Spain is far too dependent on foreign customers. Which means that Spain, like Greece, was even more heavily penalized during the Covid,” he said.
“The real challenge for us is more to have a smoothing of this tourist traffic, to have a better distribution of this foreign clientele on our different territories and to have a less strong concentration on certain tourist spots”, estimates Mr. Arino.
“We have to demonstrate that we can go on vacation in Auvergne, Burgundy, Franche-Comté as well as on the French Riviera,” according to Ms. Grégoire, who works on “routes that correspond to the expectations of international tourists so that we be able to welcome them with the same level of quality in each of the regions”, with “turnkey circuits that allow them to discover heritage tourism”.
For 2023, France, like the rest of the world, is impatiently awaiting the return of Asian tourists who were lacking in 2022 (-31% compared to 2019). And France should benefit from another tourist asset for the second half that Spain will not have: the Rugby World Cup.