This statistic shows the number of foreign tourists who stayed in France in 2018, by continent of origin. That year, the vast majority of tourists who traveled to France came from Europe. Indeed, there were 70 million tourists from this continent.

This bar chart shows the distribution of foreign tourists in France in 2018, by country or region of origin. Chinese tourists accounted for about 2.4 percent of foreign tourists in France.

It appears that the majority of tourists visiting France are Europeans. In 2018, there were over 70 million visitors coming from Europe to France, compared to 19.3 million from the rest of the globe. Geographical and cultural proximity might explain why most tourists in France are from other European countries. In 2017, France welcomed more than 207.3 million foreign visitors.

France is popular among British tourists

Even though the number of foreign tourists coming from outside Europe to France has increased since 2010, Europeans remain the largest of visitors to the country. Among them, British people represented the biggest inbound travel market for France, ahead of countries such as Germany and Benelux. In 2017, there were more than 12,7 million tourists from the United Kingdom in France. A lot of British tourists in France visit Paris, as well as the Provence-Alpes d’Azur region (the French Riviera). On its own, the French capital welcomed nearly two million tourists from the UK in 2016.

And where do French people go in Europe?

In 2017, more than 87 percent of trips took in France were domestic. The French are one of the EU nations spending more time in their own country for holidays, alongside with Spaniards. However, French people do travel, and just like their neighbors, they mainly go to Europe. Because of their Mediterranean climate and their lower prices, Italy, Portugal and Spain are the preferred foreign destinations of French tourists during summer. Thus, Spain received nearly 11 million French visitors in 2018.

In 2018, domestic tourism was more popular than outbound tourism among travelers in France across all age groups. This type of travel was particularly popular among travelers aged 35 to 44 years old. Among their older counterparts, 32.31 percent of travelers 65 years and older stated that they participated in domestic trips in that year. In contrast, outbound trips were most common among travelers aged 15 to 24 years.

In December 2019, there were approximately 10 million arrivals at accommodation establishments in France. Arrivals include residents and non-residents staying in tourist accommodation.

Foreign and French visitors spent an average of 33 billion euros on tourist accommodation, and more than 17 billion euros on restaurants and cafes in 2018.

In many countries, the tourism industry is a major contributor to the economy. According to the source, the two main areas of domestic tourist spending were non-urban transport services and travel accommodation in France in 2018. Meanwhile, French tourists spent 8.6 billion euros on food and beverage services in their country over the same year.

In August 2024, the number of international tourist arrivals in Italy, including visitors who stayed overnight and same-day travelers, grew by five percent compared to the previous year, totaling nearly 11 million. Despite the annual increase, this figure remained slightly below the volume of visitors reported in August 2019, before the impact of COVID-19. How much do inbound travelers spend in Italy? In 2023, Italy ranked fourth on the list of the countries with the highest number of international tourist arrivals worldwide, with almost 60 million arrivals. While the number of travelers did not catch up yet with pre-pandemic levels, the total international tourist expenditure in Italy exceeded the figure from 2019, amounting to over 50 billion euros in 2023. What are the leading inbound travel markets in Italy? Both before and after the impact of the pandemic, Germany represented the leading inbound travel market in Italy based on tourist arrivals, ranking ahead of France, Austria, and Switzerland in 2023. While Germany was also the country with the highest inbound tourist expenditure in Italy that year, the United States came in second in that case, followed by the United Kingdom and France.

In 2022, the number of tourists from France in Israel amounted to 242,300. This was a significant increase compared to the previous year following another decline in 2020. On the other hand, in 2019, the number of French tourists visiting Israel slightly increased to 367,500 thousand people, up from 346,000 thousand in 2018.

The weight of tourist activities is relatively stable in the total French economy. Since 2010, it is in 2013 where the tourism sector had the largest share of the French GDP. In 2018, tourism represented 7.36 percent.

In 2018, France recorded nearly 90 million international tourist arrivals. Most of the international arrivals visiting France came by land transport, specifically by road. Air and water transportation came in second and third position, recording, respectively, more than 28 million and almost six million international arrivals in 2018.

In September 2024, the number of inbound tourist arrivals in France declined by 4.3 percent over the previous year. Overall, international tourist arrivals in France reached around 5.6 million in September 2024.

The main sector of spending by foreign tourists in France was accommodation in 2018. Restaurant and cafes represented nearly 10 billion euros in the same year.

This statistic shows a breakdown of tourists staying in French Guiana in 2018, by age group. It appears that more than 40 percent of respondents were between 40 and 60 years old.

This bar chart presents the tourism expenditures in the Ile-de-France region, in France in 2018, by country of origin (in million euros). It appears that American tourists spent approximately two billion euros in the Ile-de-France region during that year.

According to the UNWTO, the number of international tourist arrivals in Guadeloupe increased steadily from 2011 to 2018, rising by over 178 percent in that period. That last year, the Caribbean insular region of France registered nearly 1.2 million tourist arrivals, of which more than 60 percent corresponded to overnight tourists.

In 2018, the French region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (PACA) invested 379 million euros in accomodation. The statistic shows the number of nights spent by international tourists in hotels in the French region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (PACA) in 2018, by city. That year, more than 2.4 million overnight stays by foreign tourists were recorded in Nice.

In the southern French region of Occitanie, in the metropolitan areas of Toulouse and Montpellier, 18 percent of total employment were related to the tourism industry in 2018. More than one quarter of employments recorded in Pyrenees were related to tourism.

In 2019 there were 35.4 million tourist arrivals in hotels in Paris. Despite the development of new hosting methods like the famous online platform Airbnb, Parisian hotels keep being one of the most favored ways to stay in the City of Lights. In 2018, the occupancy rate of hotels in Paris reached 78 percent.

Tourist arrivals in the French capital

The number of tourist arrivals in Parisian hotels has been increasing for the last ten years. After a small decrease in 2016, a consequence of the 2015 terrorist attacks which occurred in the French capital, the number of arrivals keeps growing. In 2018, there were more than 17.6 million international tourist arrivals in hotels in Paris, compared to 17.5 million French tourist arrivals. 3-star hotels represented the majority of hotel arrivals in inner Paris in 2018. That year, more than 6.7 million tourists stayed in 3 star hotels.

Being a tourist in Paris

Paris is one of the most visited cities in Europe and in the World. Monuments like the Palace of Versailles attract millions of tourists every year whether they come from abroad or from France. It appears that there is not much difference between an international tourist and a French tourist discovering Paris. In a survey from 2014, both French and foreign tourists mentioned discovering the city and visiting museums and monuments as their leading holiday motivations. However, foreign tourists seem to spend more than French ones. On average international visitors spend more on food and drink as well as on shopping than French tourists.

The department Hérault made up for 26 percent of total investments in the tourism industry in the southern French region of Occitanie in 2018. More than 300 million euros were invested in Hérault. The statistic also reveals that around 158 million euros were invested in Pyrénées-Orientales.