France Retains Title as World’s Top Travel Destination

Atout France, the France Tourism Development Agency, released estimates for the number of foreign visitors, as well as figures for American travelers for 2011. Since the 1990s, France has been the world’s number one travel destination. This holds true in 2011, with an estimated 78 million foreign visitors, resulting in $45 billion in tourism revenue.

For the last two years, France has also become the top European destination for American travelers. Figures for 2011 should remain at 3.1 million, a 3 percent increase over 2010. Americans visiting France in 2011 spent over $5 billion. Forecasts for 2012 are positive.

The number of foreign and American visitors is expected to increase by 2 to 3 percent. Due to a more positive economic outlook in the U.S. since 2010, as well as an increase in consumer confidence, several sectors of travel to France have rebounded.

There has been an upturn in American business and luxury travel to France, in particular a strong return of meetings, conventions and incentives programs and a renewed interest in cruises, specifically in river and canal cruises on France’s waterways.