LEAVING FRANCE IS THE BEST PART OF THE TRIP
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France wants you to know that she is the most visited country in the whole wide world.

FRANCE STILL THE MOST VISITED COUNTRY IN THE WORLD

PARIS February 7, 2007 (AFP) - France, the most visited country in the world, welcomed 78 million foreign tourists in 2006, an increase of 2.7 percent compared with 2005, figures from the tourism ministry showed on Wednesday.

Yes, well, bettering 2005 (and here) wasn't much of a trick.

About three quarters of the visitors were European, including a marked increase in Spaniards, but the figures also revealed a sharp increase in Chinese holidaymakers and a fall in Japanese (and here and here).

... France is the most visited country in the world measured by visitor numbers, but is third in terms of revenues generated by tourism behind the United States in first place and Spain.

[Emphasis added.]

It all sounds rather grand. But the numbers, much like France herself, are more pedestrian than extraordinary.

Restricting the analysis and forecasting of tourism to cross-border movements distorts the comparison among different geographical regions around the world. The principal result of this is that the level of tourism activity in Europe appears far more important relative to the rest of the world than it is in reality. This is due to the continent being split up into a number of small countries in close proximity to one another, which means that international border crossings are more frequent than in other parts of the world. Indeed, a large proportion of the European population lives within less than 200km of an international border. This situation can be compared to that of an American, a Brazilian, or a Chinese who might have to travel thousands of kilometres to reach a foreign country.

Every month through June, Pave will post a colorful poster extolling a special reason for visiting France. Drop us a line at "pavefrance-at-gmail-dot-com" if you have a good reason to visit France.

PFFT (What is this?): "A Place To Go To™" 3½ | Rayonnement français 0

The poster made me laugh this morning.

The further the destination, the longer people tend to stay hence spend more money. While US tourism is down, France, as your headline states, remains the most visited country in the world. All that must be quite unnerving to our confused little tartuffe.

Bonjour,

Zommerx , vous avez raison.Les Yanks sous couvert d'exporter leur modèle crèvent de jalousie des réussites des autres.
J'ai rencontré plusieurs étudiants français qui sont dorénavant encouragés par leurs enseignants à aller en Chine plutôt qu' aux USA vu l' ambiance totalitaire sur l'obtention des passeports et tutti quanti.
Les entrées aux USA sont en chute libre et le secteur du tourisme sinistré…
On comprend leur rage contre la France ce pays de soi-disant "loosers

Ah, M. Zmx, master of the headline skim, returns.

If only he read the accompanying reports. First, the French claim is not for tourism, it is for anyone who has the misfortune of passing through France. Second, because of the nested huddle of Euro-states, there is a great deal more passing through than tourists.

But M. Zmx is not content to publicly demonstrate his low reading comprehension. No, he must expose himself as a complete donkey.

M. Zmx tells us American tourism is down. To support his claim he has Googled a reach-back headline from a FT article dated May 8, 2005 on American tourism in 2004. Here is some of what M. Zmx believes is evidence of American tourism in decline:

The number of international visitors last year rose 12 per cent, compared to 2003, to 46.1m, according to the US Commerce Department. They spent $93.7bn, or 17 per cent more than their counterparts the previous year. However, US market share of foreign visitors is still down 38 per cent since 1992, according to the TIA. The number of global travellers has grown by 2 per cent to 770m since 2000, but US market share has not kept pace. “Our piece of the pie has shrunk by 5m visitors,” said Mr Dow.

Yes, let's see, international visitors up, their money spent up -- it's so obvious, American tourism was down.

Oh, but it was down -- compared to 1992, a year cherry-picked to produce the baneful conclusion. Let us do what M. Zmx can't be bothered to do, let us review the relevant facts on the current state of American tourism:

October 2006 Year-to-Date International Visitation to the United States Up Eight Percent

January 24, 2007 (TI News) - In October 2006 3.6 million international visitors traveled to the United States, an increase of eight percent over October 2005. Visitation was also up five percent for the first ten months of the year (year-to-date) compared to the same period in 2005. International visitors also spent over $9.0 billion (receipts and passenger fares), which was up four percent.

U.S. TRAVEL AND TOURISM EXPORTS REBOUND FROM 9/11 DECLINE
International Visitors Spent More in 2006 Than Ever Before

February 16, 2007 (IT News) - The U.S. Department of Commerce announced this week a record $107.4 billion in international travel receipts – travel-related tourism spending, including passenger fares – for the United States in 2006. This spending represents a full recovery in export value since Sept. 11, 2001, and surpasses the previous record of $103.1 billion set in 2000.

We'll leave M. Zmx to sit in France and stew in his America-in-decline fantasies. God forbid he should acquaint himself with the facts before posting.

Ah, but M. Zmx is not done. He turns in his saddle to loose his Parthian shaft: tartuffe. Oh, the unbearable sting of a donkey calling us a religious hypocrite (!?) for our opinions on the French tourism ministry! Quick! Calamine lotion before we expire!

DGB

It's struggling and rebounding somewhat but the picture is not as rosy as you might hope. Yahoo News had an article on that a month ago.

As for US tourists traveling to France, they still come. Last month I helped a large American family of seven sitting next to me ordering their menu at a local brasserie, without the help of their French-English dictionary they had brought along with them. You would have been so proud of me.

As for the word "tartuffe" (from Molière's famous character), the word is commonly used today for "fool" or "idiot", or both in your case.

Not content to be a donkey once, M. Zmx returns to be the donkey again.

He comes back and links to an article that quotes 2005 numbers when we have provided the 2006 numbers. And again his 2005 numbers do not show a decline. M. Zmx is simply too stupid to understand that his contention that American tourism is down is wrong.

You might think he would be more circumspect in his second post, that he would post with some care. That he might read a bit more than the headline. But to think such is not to know M. Zmx, who believes contrary facts will somehow mold themselves to his profound insights.

M. Zmx believes himself in a position to pronounce who is an "idiot", who is a "fool". Apparently he has mistaken an intimate acquaintance with his own defects of intelligence as some sort of authority.

Last month I helped a large American family of seven sitting next to me ordering their menu at a local brasserie, without the help of their French-English dictionary they had brought along with them. You would have been so proud of me.
Posted by zoomerx at March 5, 2007 07:12 PM

Now that, we submit, is the Tartuffe of Molière.

DGB