Tourism – Opening of the “Rendez-vous en France” trade show by Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne (Paris, March 27)

An annual event by the operator Atout France, “Rendez-vous en France” brings French tourism professionals together each year as well as hundreds of foreign tour operators. This year’s edition includes 947 tour operators from 69 countries and 750 exhibitors from all over France. Nearly 25,000 professional meetings are scheduled.

The year 2017 confirmed the strong upward trend in international travel to France, with a record number of foreign visitors: nearly 89 million. Occupancy at hotels, campgrounds and private dwellings was up 6.8%, with significant changes with regard to nationalities and return visitors, notably from Germany (+9.9%), Spain (+11.3%), Italy (+9.2%), the United States (+16%), China (+19.3%), Japan (+22.1%) and Russia (+32.9%).

To date, airline reservations for 2018 are still on the rise, and are up 10% for the next 6 months.

These positive numbers are the result of combined efforts. The plan to revive tourism adopted in 2016 and implemented throughout 2017 is bearing fruit. To promote tourism, professionals now want to maintain the public-private partnership between the state, local governments and private actors. The government supports this, as the Prime Minister confirmed at the last interministerial tourism council meeting on January 19.