France lures high-spending tourists from Middle East

France, one of most sought-after global tourist destinations, is hoping to tap more aggressively the high spending holiday travellers from the Middle East, a senior official of the country’s tourism department said on Wednesday.

By Issac John

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Published: Fri 4 May 2012, 11:31 PM

Last updated: Tue 7 Apr 2015, 12:24 PM

Karim Mekachera, director of Atout France, Near and Middle East Regional Office, saw increasing potential in the Middle East visitor segment in terms of quality and revenue compared to other global counterparts as they stay longer and spend more on their visits which is a very attractive proposition.

Speaking to Khaleej Times at the Arabian Travel Market, Karim said France, which received around 79 million tourists in 2011 regardless of the bleak global economy conditions, hopes that a bigger traffic of tourists from the Middle East would support in boosting the share of tourism to its Gross Domestic Product, or GDP, which currently contributes around seven per cent to the national economy.

He said this year Atout France, the Dubai-based arm of the state-owned French tourism body, is wooing regional travellers to the diversity of mountains and ski resorts of France as part of raising tourist traffic to the country from the current 891,000 visitors a year.

“As one of the hot spot tourist destinations of the world, France offers visitors with exotic natural beauties and breathtaking landscapes. France Tourism forms one of the main supporting factors of the nation’s economy,” he said.

France Travel Guide gives you an overview of tourism in France.

The tourism body launched an online travel portal at this year’s Arabian Travel Mart to help travellers pre-plan their visit to the diverse tourist hot spots of France.

“France considers Middle Eastern travellers as a key segment in its global tourism inflows and our efforts are to aggressively woo them with particular focus on the high net worth segment of the visitor profile,” said Karim. According to an Atout France survey. 50 per cent of the Middle East clientele spend more than €5,000 a day and their average stay in France is some 11 days in one trip which is comparatively longer than many global visitor segments. Travellers from GCC dominate the share of regional travellers to France with the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait ahead of others.

France has also created a new Palace segment in five star hotel categories which could be of great attraction to Middle Eastern travellers who are enthusiastic towards luxury and opulence, said Karim. According to a survey, 42 per cent of the visitors who stay in Palace of hotels are from the Middle East. “Each year at the ATM our endeavour is to showcase the diversity of French destinations and this year we are focusing on mountains and ski resorts since they offer an exciting entertainment and leisure travel opportunity to Middle Eastern visitors,” he said.

There are some 98 ski resorts in France, which attracts over five million tourists annually which brings in some €7 billion in turnover to the country’s tourism.

During season every year, France has the second largest number of ski days worldwide, he said.

Karim said that the new digital strategy of French tourism body is aimed accelerating tourism promotion considering that today a third of all sales of French tourism services are made on the Internet. issacjohn@khleejtimes.com


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