According to a document from the Budget Directorate, the goal of the public authorities for the number of foreign visitors for 2020, i.e. 100 million tourists, has been offset by two years because of the impact of the "yellow vests" movement and the effect of Brexit. On the other hand, the revenue forecast of 60 billion euros remains achievable.
The news came quietly via a companion document to the draft budget for 2020: unless a real change of trend takes place, destination France will not reach the target set by public authorities for the number of foreign visitors by the next year.
In a report on tourism policy, the Budget Directorate indicates that while France "still aims to welcome 100 million foreign tourists," this has been pushed from 2020 to 2022, " in view of the current situation ".
For 2020, the same document reports a "forecast" of 94 million foreign visitors, compared to a total of 91 million for 2019, which is an "updated forecast", a drop of three million compared to the initial prognosis (94 million). In essence, France is heading towards a new record year, after the accumulation of 89.3 million international tourists in 2018, but its momentum has somewhat slowed.
"The indicators for the first months of 2019 show a decrease in international tourist traffic for the first half of the year. This trend can largely be explained by the nationwide social movements that affected the country at the beginning of the year, which had an impact on medium and long-term bookings, as well as by the effects of the decline in the pound (the UK being our premier tourist market)," says the Budget Directorate.
On the other hand, this confirms the 2020 target for international tourism revenue, i.e. a total of 60 billion euros (for the record, the latter had been raised by 10 billion, following a modification of the method of calculating revenue by the Banque de France). "Despite a decline in tourist traffic in the first half of 2019, international tourism revenue is not declining," notes the Budget Directorate, which means that they "expect to meet the target set by the government for 2020".
