New Resorts Threaten Tourism in France
France is the number one tourist destination of the world, according to current figures released by the French Tourism Ministry, which show that approximately 82 million foreign tourists visited France in the year 2007. The number of foreign visitors is up 4% on 2006, however if compared to the number of French tourists visiting in earlier years, there has a major drop, decreasing from 11.9% to 9.1% from 1990 to 2008, and is a matter of concern for the French tourism, who believe new resorts springing up in emerging markets are largely to blame for France’s tourism decline.
According to French tourism official Mr. Herve Novelli, the development of new resorts in Dubai, Croatia, Morocco and Tunisia has created some tough competition for the French tourism industry. They are not only competing with new and high tech visitor attractions in the case of Dubai’s forthcoming Dubailand but the exotic nature of locations such as Morocco and Tunisia. The increasing numbers of foreign visitors to these destinations has pressed the alarm button of French tourism officials, and is a wake-up call to start planning tourism campaigns and marketing strategies to counter the drop in the amount of visitors to France and ensure France retains its number one title as the world’s top tourism destination.
Novelli, revealed the French Tourism Ministry is looking at a variety of solutions to counter the drop in the foreign tourists by attracting new foreign visitors. As part of this process, last week, the Ministry initiated a drive to encourage tourists from the emerging economies of India, China, Russia, Brazil and Mexico to discover the wonders a la belle France.
As these economies become wealthier, increased travel is one of the first side effects of a wealthier society and France clearly understands the benefits in attraction these tourists to its country. The threat of new resorts is already having an impact on the more established overseas property markets with holiday home buyers and real estate investors opting for emerging markets which offer better value for money or a more exotic holiday environment.
As an added incentive Mr. Novelli also said, that the intention is to allow more low cost airlines to fly operate new routes to numerous destinations in France in the hope that tourists will respond to the cheap flights on offer enabling them to sample more of the destinations on offer throughout France. The advent of new low cost flight should prove beneficial to French property owners who may benefit from increased tourism bookings of French holiday properties and cheaper access to their holiday home in France.
