Paris 2010: more tourists and from further away

The city of Paris has reported an increase in visitors this year in comparison to 2008 and 2009, thanks notably to larger numbers than ever before of tourists from China, Brazil and Russia.

Although British and American tourist numbers are down on previous years, the number of visitors to the French capital from China has increased by 33.6% this year. A similar rise (+29.8%) was seen in the numbers of people coming to Paris from the Middle East, as well as in the numbers of people coming from other developing countries (+19% for visitors from Brazil, India, Mexico and Russia, and +30% for visitors from Africa).

Will Paris change in any way to attempt to attract even more visitors from these regions, or are they in fact simply looking for the same things as the more traditional visitors? The city of Paris has also reported that attendance figures at the city-run museums has also increased (+40% per day), which would seem to suggest that they have the same interests, principally the cultural and historical offerings of the city.

One thing is certain though and that is that Paris will need an even larger pool of hotels. Here as well though the city of Paris believes itself to be prepared, with tourism chiefs announcing the creation of an extra 7000 hotel rooms in the city by 2020. Whether this will lead to a decrease in prices or not though remains to be seen.

Full information on the report can be found here (in French).