France remains the top destination

Despite concerns about the loss of competitiveness of the French tourism industry, the results of 2013 are encouraging. According to the World Tourism Organization, international tourist arrivals grew by 5% last year to reach a record $ 1.087 billion. France remains the leader as it progresses more than average (6%) with 83 million foreign greeted with a comfortable lead over the United States (67 million) and Spain (60.6 million). Incidentally, this barometer confirms that country where tourism expenditure explodes as China, Russia and Brazil.
The statistics of the European Union confirms the good results in French a broader approach. They concern the total number of nights spent in tourist accommodation, adding stays of foreign tourists and local customers. Again, the European market as a whole grew by 1.6% and even 5% when only interested in foreign tourists. Moreover, apart from 2008-2009 recorded in the financial crisis hollow, this figure is constantly growing.

Greek and Spanish competition 

In their rating of Europe at 28, France rises to 405.2 million overnight stays well ahead of Spain (386.5), Italy (363), Germany (355.3) and the United Kingdom (319.9). Alone our country weighs more than 15% of the European total! In this ranking, yet the France rose slightly less (1.1%) than the market average (+1.6%). However, it remains dynamic for the reception of foreign tourists (5.6% where local customers down 1%) but less than Greece (+13.2%) and the UK (+16.7% ). It also saves almost half of overnight stays by foreign tourists (132.2 million) than the Spanish neighbor (251.9 million).
With the turmoil of the Arab Spring, the resurgence of European tourism in Southern Europe confirms the reading performance of Greece and Spain. Italy, however, is among the few countries clearly decreased (-4.6%), both welcoming foreign (-0.5%) than for domestic customers (-8.3% ).
This European charts also has the merit of reminding us that foreign customers still in the minority: it represents 45% of nights on average, 33% in France and even only 20% in Germany. Conversely, foreign tourists accounted for 79% of nights in Greece and 93% in Cyprus. It can lead to 96% in Malta and 98% for Liechtenstein.