Foreign tourist arrivals in France 2010-2018, by residency area

It appears that the majority of tourists visiting France are Europeans. In 2018, there were over 70 million visitors coming from Europe to France, compared to 19.3 million from the rest of the globe. Geographical and cultural proximity might explain why most tourists in France are from other European countries. In 2017, France welcomed more than 207.3 million foreign visitors.

France is popular among British tourists

Even though the number of foreign tourists coming from outside Europe to France has increased since 2010, Europeans remain the largest of visitors to the country. Among them, British people represented the biggest inbound travel market for France, ahead of countries such as Germany and Benelux. In 2017, there were more than 12,7 million tourists from the United Kingdom in France. A lot of British tourists in France visit Paris, as well as the Provence-Alpes d’Azur region (the French Riviera). On its own, the French capital welcomed nearly two million tourists from the UK in 2016.

And where do French people go in Europe?

In 2017, more than 87 percent of trips took in France were domestic. The French are one of the EU nations spending more time in their own country for holidays, alongside with Spaniards. However, French people do travel, and just like their neighbors, they mainly go to Europe. Because of their Mediterranean climate and their lower prices, Italy, Portugal and Spain are the preferred foreign destinations of French tourists during summer. Thus, Spain received nearly 11 million French visitors in 2018.