France urges for help with dropping tourism sector

During the conference on Tuesday, the French government asked for more aid to promote the country’s tourism sector. After experiencing a series of violent terror attacks costing Paris around 750 million euros in lost revenue, France is struggling with a major tourism breakdown, as the hospitality industry accounts for 7-8 per cent of France's GDP and offers work for more than 2 million people.

Due to the 8 per cent dropping in foreign tourist arrivals to France, officials here are willing to invest significant amounts of money in order to promote and revive French tourism industry.

"Our message is that we are mobilized and that we do not resign ourselves. We will have an ambitious tourism promotion campaign," Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault declared during the press conference.

To begin with, 1.5 million euros will be provided to a public-private initiative aiming to promote France as a touristic destination. Moreover, the government will contribute with more than 10 million euros to boost the country’s image, after intense discussions and negotiations with the key hospitality industry players.

According to the latest data, France welcomes more than 85 million foreign visitors every year. With the new campaign aiming to heavily promote the country as Europe’s main touristic destination, the target has been set to 100 million foreign tourists by 2020, Ayrault concluded.