FRANCE, the world’s leading destination for travel and tourism, which attracted more than 74 million tourists in 2009, is sharpening its focus on high-net worth travellers from the Middle East and Near East.
Visitors from the region currently number just over 725,000 according to the state-owned French tourism body Atout France Near & Middle East, which recently rebranded from Maison de la France.
“Travellers from the Middle East and Near East are high contributors to the economy of French tourism in terms of their liberal spending habits and long stays and we believe that their share in the global outbound flows to our country is as yet not unlocked fully,” said Karim Mekachera, director of Atout France, Near and Middle East regional office.
Though travellers from the region are one of the top contributors to the coffers of the tourism revenue of France they still only account for just two per cent of the country’s total tourist arrivals.
“We believe this share can easily go up as France presents new destinations and offers the best of attractions in the world,” said Mekachera.
He said the average stay of tourists from the region is 11 days, among the longest of all travellers to France. Visitors from the GCC dominate the share of outbound travellers from the Middle and Near East with Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait contributing the highest numbers.
While 2008 was a very good year for tourist arrivals to France, there was a drop of six per cent in the first half of 2009 from the Middle East. However tourism authorities expect positive growth in the near future.
According to World Tourism Organisation (WTO) forecasts, there could be significant growth in the outbound tourism from the region with a total of 35 million travellers flying out to international destinations by 2020.
WTO statistics also point to a $20 billion spend on outbound travel from the region.
“What is of significance is that travellers from the region are high-end clientele for France’s tourism and this realisation will be the base for our onward strategy to woo the affluent bitten by the travel bug from the Middle and Near East,” said Mekachera adding that A Tout France Middle East is in the throes of rolling out a series of meaningful promotional activities to present the country’s charm and diversity to the region’s travel community.
To increase prospects for interested travellers from the UAE, Air France has recently introduced a new sector with direct flights from Abu Dhabi to Paris, five times a week.