Tourism in France

Mont Saint-Michel, Manche
Scandola Nature Reserve, Corsica

Tourism in France directly contributed 79.8 billion euros to gross domestic product (GDP) in 2013, 30% of which comes from international visitors and 70% from domestic tourism spending. As of 2023, France is the world's sixth-largest travel and tourism market, with the sector contributing approximately $264.7 billion to the country's GDP.[1] The total contribution of travel and tourism represents 9.7% of GDP and supports 2.9 million jobs (10.9% of employment) in the country.[2] Tourism contributes significantly to the balance of payments.

France was visited by 102 million foreign tourists in 2025, making it the most visited country in the world.[3] However, France ranks fifth in terms of hotel stays, with 147 million nights, behind the United States, Spain, Italy, and the United Kingdom: this is because France is a transit country, and many international visitors do not stay in hotels. It ranks third (after the United States and Spain) in terms of international tourism receipts.[4]

France has 53 sites inscribed in the UNESCO's World Heritage List and features cities or sites of high cultural interest (Paris being the foremost, but also Loire Valley, Toulouse, Strasbourg, Bordeaux, Lyon and others), beaches and seaside resorts, ski resorts, as well as rural regions that many enjoy for their beauty and tranquility (green tourism). Small and picturesque French villages of quality heritage (such as Collonges-la-Rouge, Locronan, or Montsoreau) are promoted through the association Les Plus Beaux Villages de France (literally "The Most Beautiful Villages of France"). The "Remarkable Gardens" label is a list of the over two hundred gardens classified by the Ministry of Culture. This label is intended to protect and promote remarkable gardens and parks.

Statistics

Yearly tourist arrivals in millions[5][6][7][8]

Most tourists arriving to France in 2018 came from the following countries or territories:[9]

Rank Country or territory Number of tourists
1  United Kingdom 13,000,000
2  Germany 12,300,000
3  Belgium

 Luxembourg

11,600,000
4  Italy 7,000,000
5   Switzerland 6,800,000
6  Spain 6,700,000
7  Netherlands 4,700,000
8  United States 4,500,000
Total 89,300,000

Number of stays

Palace of Versailles, Yvelines
Rank Country Stays
1 Germany 18,300,000
2 United Kingdom 17,200,000
3 Netherlands 16,800,000
4 Belgium 10,400,000
5 United States 8,800,000
6 Spain 6,900,000
7 Italy 6,100,000
8  Switzerland 5,900,000
9 Oceania 910,000
10 Canada 1,400,000
11 China 1,100,000
12 Scandinavia 2,400,000
13 Asia 2,200,000
14 Africa 1,500,000
15 Japan 800,000
Other countries 27,700,000
Total 146,800,000

Most visited cities by tourist arrivals and overnight stays

Data for 2022–2023.[10][11]

Rank City Region Arrivals Overnight stays
1 Paris Île-de-France 36,900,000 68,700,000
2 Nice Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur 5,900,000 12,000,000
3 Marseille Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur 4,300,000 8,000,000
4 Lyon Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes 3,200,000 6,000,000
5 Toulouse Occitanie 2,800,000 5,400,000
6 Bordeaux Nouvelle-Aquitaine 2,600,000 4,900,000
7 Strasbourg Grand Est 2,400,000 4,500,000
8 Montpellier Occitanie 1,800,000 3,200,000
9 Nantes Pays de la Loire 1,700,000 3,000,000
10 Annecy Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes 1,500,000 3,000,000
11 Rennes Brittany 1,300,000 2,400,000
12 Reims Grand Est 1,200,000 2,100,000
13 Avignon Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur 1,100,000 2,000,000
14 Dijon Bourgogne-Franche-Comté 1,000,000 1,900,000
15 Arles Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur 900,000 1,800,000
16 Lille Hauts-de-France 900,000 1,700,000
17 Aix-en-Provence Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur 900,000 1,700,000
18 Cannes Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur 900,000 1,700,000
19 Saint-Étienne Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes 850,000 1,700,000
20 Grenoble Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes 800,000 1,600,000
21 La Rochelle Nouvelle-Aquitaine 800,000 1,600,000
22 Clermont-Ferrand Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes 750,000 1,500,000
23 Tours Centre-Val de Loire 750,000 1,400,000
24 Orléans Centre-Val de Loire 700,000 1,300,000
25 Rouen Normandy 700,000 1,500,000
26 Caen Normandy 650,000 1,300,000
27 Le Havre Normandy 650,000 1,300,000
28 Colmar Grand Est 625,000 1,230,000
29 Metz Grand Est 600,000 1,200,000
30 Nancy Grand Est 600,000 1,200,000

Tourist stays by region

The following table shows the most visited regions by number of tourist stays in 2023.[12]

Region Non-residents Residents Total stays
Île-de-France 48,103,742 34,912,658 83,016,400
Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur 22,458,611 34,786,219 57,244,830
Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes 15,231,904 36,504,992 51,736,896
Occitanie 12,946,387 39,828,447 52,774,834
Nouvelle-Aquitaine 10,854,903 38,605,194 49,460,097
Grand Est 10,207,115 18,427,660 28,634,775
Brittany 4,842,663 20,516,288 25,358,951
Normandy 4,201,976 16,342,198 20,544,174
Pays de la Loire 4,118,552 19,273,841 23,392,393
Corsica 3,982,447 8,593,114 1,257,5561
Hauts-de-France 3,611,248 16,119,055 19,730,303
Centre-Val de Loire 3,544,809 10,872,911 14,417,720
Bourgogne-Franche-Comté 2,713,590 11,258,469 1,397,2059
Total 146,817,947 315,346,796 460,271,796

Most visited tourist sites in France

The following ranking lists the 30 most visited cultural sites in France in 2023.[13] Notre-Dame de Paris is not included.

Rank Site Location Visitors
1 Disneyland Paris Marne-la-Vallée 15,000,000
2 Sacré-Cœur Basilica Paris 13,500,000
3 Louvre Paris 8,900,000
4 Palace of Versailles Versailles 8,100,000
5 Eiffel Tower Paris 6,300,000
6 Vieux Lyon Lyon 6,000,000
7 Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes Lourdes 4,700,000
8 Muséum national d'histoire naturelle Paris 3,500,000
9 Honfleur (harbour) Honfleur 3,500,000
10 Musée d'Orsay Paris 3,000,000
11 Strasbourg Cathedral Strasbourg 3,000,000
12 Rouen (historic centre) Rouen 3,000,000
13 Parc Astérix Plailly 2,800,000
14 Centre Pompidou Paris 2,600,000
15 Puy du Fou Les Epesses 2,500,000
16 Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière Lyon 2,500,000
17 Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie Paris 2,300,000
18 ZooParc de Beauval Beauval 2,000,000
19 Futuroscope Poitiers 2,000,000
20 Saint-Malo (ramparts) Saint-Malo 2,000,000
21 Arc de Triomphe Paris 2,000,000
22 Mont-Saint-Michel Normandy 1,500,000
23 Étretat (cliffs) Étretat 1,500,000
24 Château de Chambord Chambord 1,500,000
25 Fondation Louis Vuitton Paris 1,500,000
26 Reims Cathedral Reims 1,500,000
27 Sainte-Chapelle Paris 1,400,000
28 Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac Paris 1,300,000
29 Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations Marseille 1,300,000
30 Chartres Cathedral Chartres 1,300,000

Touristic regions

Paris

Main article: Tourism in Paris
See also: List of museums in Paris and List of tourist attractions in Paris
The Eiffel Tower seen from the Place du Trocadéro

Paris, the capital city of France, is the third most visited city in the world.[14]

It has some of the world's largest and renowned museums, including the Louvre, which is the most visited art museum in the world, but also the Musée d'Orsay which, like the nearby Musée de l'Orangerie, is mostly devoted to impressionism, and Centre Georges Pompidou, dedicated to Contemporary art.

Paris hosts some of the world's most recognizable landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower, which is the most-visited paid monument in the world,[15] the Arc de Triomphe, the cathedral of Notre-Dame, or the Sacré-Cœur on Montmartre. The Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie, located in Parc de la Villette, is the biggest science museum in Europe.[16] Near Paris are located the Palace of Versailles, the former palace of the Kings of France, now a museum, and the medieval village of Provins. Both attractions are protected as UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

French Riviera

Main article: French Riviera
Saint-Tropez on the Côte d'Azur

With more than 10 million tourists a year, the French Riviera (French: Côte d'Azur), in Southeastern France, is the second leading tourist destination in the country, after the Parisian region.[17]

According to the Côte d'Azur Economic Development Agency, it benefits from 300 days of sunshine per year, 115 kilometres (71 mi) of coastline and beaches, 18 golf courses and 3,000 restaurants.[18] Each year the Côte d'Azur hosts 50% of the world's superyacht fleet, with 90% of all superyachts visiting the region's coast at least once in their lifetime.[19]

Main cities on the French Riviera include Nice, Antibes and Cannes; Cap Ferrat is also a popular destination. Cannes hosts the annual Cannes Film Festival. Tourists often visit Port-Cros National Park, east of Toulon, as well as the city-state of Monaco, famous for its Monte Carlo Casino, near the Italian border.

Provence

Main article: Provence
Paysage provençal

A large part of Provence, with Marseille as its leading city, was designed as the 2013 European Capital of Culture. Numerous famous natural sites can be found in the region, as the Gorges du Verdon, the Camargue, the Calanques National Park and the typical landscape of Luberon. Provence hosts dozens of renowned historical sites like the Pont du Gard, the Arles' Roman Monuments or the Palais des Papes in Avignon. Several smaller cities also attracts a lot of tourists, like Aix-en-Provence, La Ciotat or Cassis, on the Mediterranean Sea coastline.

Loire Valley

Main article: Châteaux of the Loire Valley
Château de Chenonceau, Loire Valley

Another major destination are the Châteaux (castles) of the Loire Valley. The French Revolution saw a number of the great French châteaux destroyed and many ransacked, their treasures stolen. The overnight impoverishment of many of the deposed nobility, usually after one of its members lost his or her head to the guillotine, saw many châteaux demolished.

During World War I and World War II, some chateaux were commandeered as military headquarters. Some of these continued to be used this way after the end of the Second World War.

This World Heritage Site is noteworthy for the quality of its architectural heritage, in its historic towns such as Amboise, Angers, Blois, Chinon, Orléans, and Saumur, but in particular for its castles, such as the Châteaux d'Amboise, de Chambord, d'Ussé, de Villandry, de Chenonceau and de Montsoreau, which illustrate to an exceptional degree the ideals of the French Renaissance.

French Alps

Main article: French Alps
Aiguille du Midi

The French Alps are the portions of the Alps mountain range that stand within France, located in the Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur regions. While some of the ranges of the French Alps are entirely in France, others, such as the Mont Blanc massif, are shared with Switzerland and Italy.

More than 20 skiing resorts make it a popular destination among Europeans in the winter.

Corsica

Main article: Corsica
Corsican landscape

Corsica is the fourth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea after Sicily, Sardinia and Cyprus. It is a popular attraction for tourists with both cultural aspects (with its main cities Ajaccio and Bastia and smaller towns like Porto-Vecchio and Sartène) and geographical features (Parc naturel régional de Corse).

The Calanques de Piana and Scandola Nature Reserve are listed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The island is 183 kilometres (114 miles) long at longest, 83 kilometres (52 miles) wide at widest, has 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) of coastline, more than 200 beaches, and is very mountainous, with Monte Cinto as the highest peak at 2,706 metres (8,878 feet) and around 120 other summits of more than 2,000 metres (6,600 feet).

Mountains comprise two-thirds of the island, forming a single chain. Forests make up 20% of the island.

Other tourist attractions

Notable places

Cities

France has many cities of cultural interest, some of them are classified as "Town of Art and History" by the French Ministry of Culture. All major cities in France are worth seeing since they all have cultural and historic attributes.

Villages

Main article: Les Plus Beaux Villages de France

Les Plus Beaux Villages de France (English: "The most beautiful villages of France") is an independent association, created in 1982, that aims to promote small and picturesque French villages of quality heritage. As of 2008, 152 villages in France have been labelled as the "Plus Beaux Villages de France".

There are a few criteria before entering the association: the population of the village must not exceed 2,000 inhabitants, there must be at least two protected areas (picturesque or legendary sites, or sites of scientific, artistic or historic interest), and the decision to apply must be taken by the municipal council.

Specific destinations

Religious sites

France attracts many religious pilgrims along the Way of St. James, or to Lourdes, a town in the Hautes-Pyrénées that hosts a few million visitors a year.[20] The Taizé Community has become one of the world's most important sites of Christian pilgrimage. Over 100,000 young people from around the world make pilgrimages to Taizé each year for prayer, Bible study, sharing, and communal work.

Theme parks

Disneyland Paris is France's and Europe's most popular theme park, with 15,405,000 combined visitors to the resort's Disneyland Park and Walt Disney Studios Park in 2009.[21] In 2019, the park attracted over 9.7 million visitors, more than the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, or the Palace of Versailles.[22] The historical theme park Puy du Fou in Vendée is the second most visited park of France.[23] Other popular theme parks are the Futuroscope of Poitiers, Vulcania in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and the Parc Astérix near Paris.

The most popular tourist sites include (visitors per year):[24]

See also

References

  1. ^ "U.S. Remains the World's Most Powerful Travel & Tourism Market". World Travel & Tourism Council. 4 September 2024. Retrieved 24 April 2026.
  2. ^ "2013 Travel & Tourism Economic Impact Report France" (PDF). World Travel & Tourism Council. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-12-02. Retrieved 2013-11-26.
  3. ^ Ann Hughes, Rebecca (20 February 2026). "France welcomed record visitor numbers in 2025, retaining its title as world's most visited country". Euronews. Associated Press. Archived from the original on 20 February 2026. Retrieved 4 March 2026.
  4. ^ "Tourisme". INSEE. Retrieved 25 May 2024.
  5. ^ "France: International tourist trips". Our World In Data. August 17, 2024.
  6. ^ "World Tourism Barometer" (PDF). World Tourism Organization. May 2024. p. 19. Retrieved 24 June 2024.
  7. ^ "Number of international tourist arrivals in France". Statista. June 2024. Retrieved 6 March 2025.
  8. ^ "Global and regional tourism performance". www.unwto.org. Retrieved 2025-06-12.
  9. ^ Visiteurs internationaux en France en 2018
  10. ^ Rounded figures.
  11. ^ "Tourism Observatory" (in French).
  12. ^ "Tourism statistics – nights spent at tourist accommodation establishments". Eurostat.
  13. ^ Direction générale des entreprises. "Mémento du tourisme 2023" (in French). Retrieved 24 March 2026.
  14. ^ "France". Travel-university.org. 2010-07-28. Archived from the original on 2006-05-07. Retrieved 2013-09-30.
  15. ^ "The Leading Travel Zone Site on the Net". travelzones.net. Archived from the original on 2011-04-26. Retrieved 2013-09-30.
  16. ^ Arfin, Ferne (11 January 2009). "France: Insider's guide to Paris". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 6 September 2009.
  17. ^ "The French Riviera Tourist Board". Frenchriviera-tourism.com. Retrieved 23 January 2011.
  18. ^ Côte d'Azur Economic Development Agency. p. 31 CRDP-Nice.net Archived 2010-07-04 at the Wayback Machine
  19. ^ Côte d'Azur Economic Development Agency, p. 66 Archived 2010-07-04 at the Wayback Machine
  20. ^ John Eade, "Pilgrimage and tourism at Lourdes, France." Annals of Tourism Research 19.1 (1992): 18-32 online.
  21. ^ "2009 Theme Index. The Global Attractions Attendance Report, 2009" (PDF). Themed Entertainment Association. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-06-02. Retrieved 7 October 2010.
  22. ^ McClanahan, Paige (2021-06-23). "'It's Like Coming Home to Family': Disneyland Paris Reopens". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-10-19.
  23. ^ "Weekend Breaks: the Vendée's Puy du Fou < Travel & Tourism | Expatica France". Expatica.com. Retrieved 23 January 2011.
  24. ^ "Fréquentation des musées et des bâtiments historiques" (in French). Archived from the original on 2007-12-24.
  25. ^ "Les chiffres clés du tourisme dans les Bouches-du-Rhône - Tourisme- Conseil général des Bouches-du-Rhône – Cg13 Marseille". Cg13.fr. Retrieved 2013-09-30.
  26. ^ a b "Official website of Moselle tourism office, 2011 key numbers. p 12" (PDF) (in French). Retrieved 31 January 2012.

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