Anna Conway

I saw this article today and figured since I will be in Paris in less than two months it was fitting.

July 17, 2013 by Laura Bowman

Thirty thousand copies of a new 13-page politeness manual, Do You Speak Touriste? has been distributed in Paris to restaurants, shops, and other business that interface with tourists. Even though tourism to the city, which received 29 million visitors last year, is expected to continue to grow exponentially, it still faces challenges. The image of Paris as a rude and cold city has as much to do with different traditions of polity as it does with actual rudeness.

Another factor is a rash of pick pocketing in areas around tourism attractions. According to French journals, Asian travelers are most often targeted. Last month, Paris put an extra 200 police in attractions around the city and the decrease in crime was dramatic. Asian tourists are a growing priority for France as the Asian market for tourists grew at a rate of 9.9 percent with visitors from China up 23.3 percent for a total 1.4 million visitors.

Overall, foreign tourists spent $46 billion in France last year. The country attracted 83 million foreign visitors in 2012, tops in the world and topping its own record of 81.4 million foreign visitors in 2011. In 2012 France was the No.1 European destination for U.S. travelers as 3.5 million Americans (+6 to 7 percent) visited the country.

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