Canadian arrivals to France keep climbing

While overall visitation to France decreased in 2016, Canadian arrivals surged with an 11 per cent increase, according to the latest figures released by Atout France.

The 2017 Mémento du Tourisme survey conducted by the French government found that visits to France last year dropped by 2.2 per cent, citing the high-profile terrorist attacks of 2015. Canadians, on the other hand, continued to travel to France in increasing numbers, with 1,125,000 Canadian arrivals recorded last year.

The average stay for Canadian travellers to France was 11 days (higher than the international average of 6.8 days), totalling 11.4 million overnights in 2016; while Canada ranks 13th in terms of arrivals, the market ranks tenth in total overnights spent in the country, according to Atout France.

Despite the tourism decrease last year, France remained the most visited country in the world with 82.6 million international arrivals in 2016, ranking fifth worldwide in terms of tourism revenue (EUR 38.4 billion).