Summary

France is the world's foremost tourism destination with over 75 million international arrivals each year. The country's visitor attraction base is dominated by Disneyland Paris whose 12 million visitors per annum is twice that of the Tour Eiffel, the next most visited attraction in the country. There are 14 attractions that host more than 1 million visitors each year. The country's top 25 cultural attractions attracted 35 million visitors in 2000 whilst the top 25 non-cultural attractions received 33 million visitors.

The French domestic markets have responded positively to modern theme park investments. In addition the high profile and strong market appeal of Disneyland Paris has significantly enhanced the international tourism appeal of northern France. This is reflected in relatively high levels of market penetration into the near neighbour markets of Holland, Belgium and the UK for day visits and short breaks.

The cultural attraction base is strong throughout France with numerous icon heritage properties and monuments complementing museums provision that is one of the best in the world. Recent investment in visitor facilities at these cultural attractions, together with better marketing, has helped increase attendance's at these properties. The prospect for future investment by both the private and public sectors into visitor attractions in France remains buoyant for the foreseeable future.

Introduction

The cultural attractions of France have long been among the country's major tourism assets. Many of these attractions, such as the Tour Eiffel, Musée du Louvre and the Château de Versailles, are symbols of French tourism featuring significantly in marketing and promotional campaigns. The opening of Disneyland Paris stimulated major investment activity in new theme parks as well as the upgrading of existing attractions. The international profile generated by Disneyland Paris has done much to bring new tourists to the Paris region leading to a general increase in admission to all types of attractions in the region.

The French Central Government, together with its Regional Governments, has traditionally undertaken bold large-scale, projects in order to stimulate regional economies outside the Paris region. This resulted in the development of Futuroscope near Poitiers as well as La Cité de la Mer at Cherbourg.

The French attractions, both cultural and non-cultural, benefit from the large domestic market with a high propensity to take leisure day trips and short tourism breaks. In addition, France hosts the world's largest number of international tourist arrivals. This includes significant numbers of day visits from near neighbour countries specifically for attraction visiting.

Following the success of Disneyland Paris in capturing and sustaining 12 million visitors per annum, other North America operators are now looking at prospects in the French markets. The recent development of aquariums, together with heavy investment in theme parks and, to a lesser extent, zoos is testimony to a vibrant attractions business in France.

Other reports of relevance:

- Germany, Travel & Tourism Intelligence Country Reports No.1 2002

- Special Report, Holidays - Coping with a Crisis, 2002

- Theme Parks Market - US Report, Consumer Intelligence, 2001

- Special Report, Holidays - Destination Marketing, 2001

- Special Report, Holidays - Planning, Buying, Financing Holidays, 2000

- The Future of Visitor Attractions, Travel and Tourism Analyst No.1 2000

- Theme Parks Abroad, Leisure Intelligence - UK Report, November 1999

and the forthcoming:

- City Breaks in Europe, Leisure Intelligence - UK Report, April 2002

- Family Holidays in Europe, Leisure Intelligence - UK Report, June 2002

- Hotels in Europe, Leisure Intelligence - UK Report, August 2002

- Third Age Travel in Europe, Leisure Intelligence - UK Report, October 2002

- Pre-family Holidays in Europe, Leisure Intelligence - UK Report, December 2002.

Definitions

An attraction is where it is feasible to charge admission for the sole purpose of sightseeing. An attraction must be a permanently established excursion destination, a primary purpose of which is to allow public access for entertainment, interest, or education; rather than being primarily a retail outlet or a venue for sporting, theatrical, or film performances. It must be open to the public, without prior booking, for published periods each year, and should be capable of attracting day visitors or tourists, as well as local residents. In addition the attraction must be a single business, under a single management, so that it is capable of answering the economic questions on revenue, employment etc, and must be receiving revenue directly from the visitors.

The definitions of travel and tourism industry and travel and tourism economy are taken from the World Travel and Tourism Council's (WTTC) Tourism Satellite Account methodology, which has identified two major concepts: travel and tourism consumption and travel and tourism demand, which help differentiate between the technical 'industry' (products and services) impact and the broader travel and tourism 'economy' impact (products and services for visitor consumption as well as products and services for industry demand).

The standard definitions used in the terminology of this report (and the Leisure Intelligence series) are as follows:

- tourism is any travel which involves an overnight stay away from home

-a holiday is a subjectively defined form of tourism, as defined by the tourist in response to surveys such as IPS. A holiday can be distinguished from other leisure travel such as visits to friends and relatives (VFR) or shopping trips

- a long holiday is a holiday of four nights or more away from home; a short break is a holiday which involves one to three nights away from home

- short-haul refers to air holidays within Europe, dominated by flights to Mediterranean resorts but including the Canary Islands, which are treated as a part of the Spanish market. Long-haul, therefore, refers to holidays outside Europe

-an inclusive tour, or package holiday, is defined as the simultaneous sale of at least two elements of a holiday to the traveller: fares on public transport (eg flights) and commercial accommodation (eg hotel or self-catering apartment). Other elements, such as meals or excursions, are not essential to the definition of an inclusive tour. The term 'all-inclusive' is used to describe a special type of resort holiday in which food, drink, excursions and other services are provided as part of the total holiday cost.

- an independent holiday is one in which the traveller organises and books transport and

accommodation from separate sources (eg a Channel ferry crossing and a caravan site in France).

- seat- or flight-only is a type of independent holiday, and the terms are used to denote holidays in which travellers only purchase a return fare and thereafter book their own accommodation, car hire etc.

Currency conversion has been calculated at the rate: €1 = FFr 6.56.

Sources of information

The range of data is limited to the major attractions. There does not appear to be a comprehensive source that lists all attractions in France, their ownership and their trading patterns. As a result, this review has had to piece together information from a disparate range of sources, including the leisure press.

The principle source of official statistics on admission data for the top 50 most visited attractions in France has been provided by the 'Observatoire National du Tourisme'. This has been supplemented by information from the Annual Survey of Capital Investment in attractions organised by the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA). Additional material has been provided by representatives of regional tourist boards.

Despite the relative paucity of in-depth information about the sector as a whole, there is robust data that provides quality information about strategic trends and developments in France. Information about more general tourism activity has been sourced from the World Tourism Organization (WTO), the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC).

Abbreviations

GDP	Gross Domestic Product
IAAPA	The International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions
IPS	International Passenger Survey
PDI	Personal Disposable Income
WTO	World Tourism Organization
WTTC	World Travel and Tourism Council