France looks forward to 50 mn foreign tourists in 2021

The tourism industry accounts for around 8 per cent of the country's gross domestic product and creates about 2 million direct and indirect jobs.

Paris: France hopes to see 50 million foreign holidaymakers in 2021, a 43 per cent increase from last year, thanks to a rebound in the European markets, Minister of State for Tourism Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne said.

“This year, we hope to welcome 50 million foreign tourists, against 35 million last year and 90 million in 2019. The summer is therefore a bearer of hope,” Xinhua news agency quoted Lemoyne as saying to the French newspaper, Le Journal de Dimanche.

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Tourist arrivals from European countries, notably Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium, have started, except from the UK which has imposed a 14-day isolation period on people returning from France, he added.

He also noted a tepid recovery of the American market while Asian tourists won’t be back until next year.

Calling the coronavirus pandemic “the permanent unexpected”, the Minister pledged a “territorialised response” to an eventual epidemic wave, stressing that the health pass, a certificate which proves that the holder is vaccinated or tests negative for Covid-19, is a key tool to fight the disease while avoiding braking measures.

France has been the most-visited country in the world before the pandemic struck, with nearly 90 million foreign tourists each year.

Last year, it lost about two-thirds of tourist arrivals and what the tourism sector generated went down by 41 per cent from 2019 to 89 billion euros ($106 billion).

The tourism industry accounts for around 8 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product and creates about 2 million direct and indirect jobs.