- Title: FRANCE/FILE: Paris and London battle for tourist top spot
- Date: 13th May 2014
- Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (FILE) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF LOUVRE MUSEUM TOURISTS, INCLUDING WOMAN WEARING WEDDING DRESS, ON BRIDGE
- Embargoed: 28th May 2014 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: United Kingdom
- Country: United Kingdom
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVAOAL0KN4E2UHROZ22ZQ6X3BBT
- Story Text: Paris and London continued to vie for the title of the world's top tourist destination as figures announced on Tuesday (May 13) showed that a bumper year for the British capital was matched by a more modest one across the Channel.
Some 16.6 million foreign visitors toured the home of the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre and Notre Dame in 2013, while last week, London announced that 16.8 million visitors had touched down in the city in the same 12-month period.
The figure for London marked a 9 percent increase on 2012 with over a million more tourists, whilst the Paris figures saw a rise of a little over 7 percent in comparison to the year before.
Early indications that London could knock Paris off the tourist top spot were seized upon by British and French media early in the year, but authorities on both sides of the Channel have stressed that different data collection methods mean the two figures are not comparable.
With major attractions such as the Palace of Versailles and Euro Disney falling outside the French capital's boundaries, Paris officials said that setting too much store by the precise figures was unhelpful.
But announcing the results for the City of Light on Thursday, Paris tourist chief Nicolas Lefebvre said that with only a little over 200 miles (343 km) separating the two, and an undersea rail link offering speedy connections, a boost for London was good for Paris too.
"Most of international visitors coming from far regions of the world, from Asia, from the Middle East, from America, very often they go to both cities, in London and in Paris, so we have the same visitors. And we are very happy to be such close with London, London is of course a great city for tourism, different from Paris, so we are more complementary cities than competitive cities," he said.
Officials in London said that a bumper year for its world-class museums had helped overcome the perils of a post-Olympic slump in visitor numbers, after the city hosted the Summer Games in 2012.
Visitors from European countries slowly recovering from the economic crisis helped boost the figures, as did big rises in numbers from countries including Australia and Canada.
For American tourists in Paris such as Reena, recently returned from London, the fact that English was spoken in the U.K. was a big bonus.
"For us Paris is a little scarier because of the language barrier. We don't understand so much the subway system, so it's a little more nerve-wracking but as far as being out and walking, we love it. It's just beautiful. There's so much you can't hardly keep up with so much of it, but you want to," she said during a two-day visit to Paris with her daughter.
But others including American tourist Christina said that France's famous cuisine and beautiful capital meant it beat its British rival.
"London is very crowded, expensive, dirty. I'm half English, so true confessions. I find the people friendly, but the food isn't as good," Christina said.
For all the talk of the entente cordiale, Lefebvre said that whilst in terms of foreign visitors the two cities had published similar results, Paris was way ahead of its rival in terms of domestic ones.
"If on the other hand we look at the two cities in terms of tourism in the wider sense, including domestic visitors, it's indisputable. Paris is still very much ahead of London in terms of total tourist numbers, if you include all the different categories," he said.
If French visitors are added to the foreign total, some 47 million people came to Paris in 2013.
Paris officials also announced good news in terms of business tourism, with the International Congress and Convention Association naming Paris the world's congress capital, with 1,055 events organised in 2013. - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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