FRANCE maintained its position as the world’s favourite tourism destination in 2008 but the number of visitors from the Middle East fell by seven per cent.
Karim Mekachera, the new director Middle East for Atout France, the France Tourism Development Agency, said: “The numbers were down but the Middle East remains an extremely important market for us particularly since we are concentrating on increasing yield.
“The five-year plan from 2005 to 2010 included increasing tourism industry income to €40 billion ($59.6 billion) per year and we almost exceeded that in 2008 and are on target to do so in 2009.
Though the figures are not in yet, I think we will still have growth but just a different kind of growth.
“I have spoken to hoteliers this year who told me that the summer season was saved by Middle East visitors, in some cases they made up 35 per cent of the guests.”
Arrivals to France in 2008 were 78.5 million, around three per cent down on 2007. Of those 725,000 came from the Middle East, a drop of seven per cent on 2007’s figure of 782,000.
However Middle Eastern tourists were among those who stayed the longest, with an average trip lasting just over nine nights – only African visitors stayed longer.
Mekachera added: “The Middle East is, I believe, a crucial region for us though it has been evident that when financial crisis hits people to tend, if they travel at all, to stay closer to home.”
Mekachera moved to the Dubai office in September just after the formation of Atout France which came about through the merger in June of Maison de la France, the promotion agency for France as a tourism destination, and ODIT France, the tourism engineering agency.
He said: “This new body gives us a whole range of new competencies from promotion to tourism infrastructure, quality monitoring – France at last has the fifth star for its hotels – and training.
“We are now working at national level to formulate the strategy for the next five years which we expect to announce around April next year.
“What I see particularly for this region, which for us covers 11 countries, is a single main strategy with perhaps diverse areas to address the GCC countries and the other Arabic nations who are perhaps looking for different things when they visit France.
“We want to create more visibility in these countries and to bring local travel agents into contact with French professionals who can help them.”