Top International Destinations of American Tourists (numbers in thousands) 2000 1. Mexico 18,849 2. Canada 15,114 3. United Kingdom 4,189 4. France 2,927 http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0778210.html The World's Top Tourism Destinations (international tourist arrivals) 2000 1. France 75.6 2. Spain 47.9 3. United States 50.9 4. Italy 41.2 http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0198352.html 2.927 million American tourists accounted for a mere 3.87 % of international tourist arrivals in France during the year 2000
Well, they represent 4% of the whole, do you really think these 4% have 30% of the wealth and the other 96% has 70% ? Regarding the spending by American tourists, all the people I know working in this field, from management to servers, say that the Americans are not the best spenders. They look for the best deals, try to negociate, ask for rebates and so on... A Russian for example, will not even check the detail of a restaurant bill, it would be considered very bad manners by the other Russians around. So, maybe the US tourists of middle class origin are a bit wealthier than the other middle-class tourists but it doesn't show in their spending habits anyway. So, will the sector tourism miss a part of these 4% of average tourists ? Probably not because the French who would have spent their vacations in the US will stay in France. Regarding tourism as an industry, it is slowing, but worldwide since the 9/11. So, if the question is wether even a total absence of tourists from the US will affect the tourism sector, the answer is a flat NO. OHLC
Well, as a matter of conclusion, I will say that the fact is : **the us tourist is absolutely marginal 4% to the French tourism industry** **the French economy is not tourist based** SO **there is absolutely no consequence to the absence of US tourists on the economy** With all due respect Jem, you sound like you have been watching FOX for too long... your perception is completely out of phase with the reality... BTW, being there, knowing the tourism industry quite well, and having interests in it, you guess I may know more about what is going on than you do... OHLC
Apart from the excellent reasoning given by others, one point you are neglecting to consider is the impact of the Euro's strength vs the US$. In fact, I would probably put any drop off in US tourism to France and declines in French exports to the US to that alone.
I'm willing to bet that in France, as in most tourism locales, it is the Asian tourist, especially the Japanese, that spends more per day per visitor than any other nationality. A big part of that is the Japanese tradition of "omiyage," buying gifts for relatives/friends/business associates. For example, the Japanese tourist in Hawaii spends much, much more than a mainland American or Canadian visitor.
Well hapaboy makes a good point so I will adjust my guess down. But I wonder if you guys have really done much travelling as a tourist or frequented the expensive hotels and restaurants. It seems to me europeans pride themselves on knowing how to get away for tourist traps and do the bed an breakfast thing and the hostel thing and the average americans travel in tours on tour buses staying at the very expensive hotels and spending money on there three hour excursions off the tour boats. Now hey I could be wrong and most of my traveling through Europe was in the mid to late 80s. But, it did not seem any different when I there more recently. By the way drop this I do not have a right to know anything at all, as my wifes family is from Holland, making my kids sort of half Dutch. And my wife and now my kids go to Europe to visit relatives frequently. I am not claiming to know everything but I do know that when I have frequented top hotels in the summer, it seems like a lot of Americans spending the big money. So I say msfe should post some more stats. My major point still being hey what percent of the French economy is dependent on American tourists and what percent on exports to Americans (in consideration for Mexicans and others please change Americans to U.S.) And is it true or false that business leaders in France are very concerned. Look either the news here is completely full of shit or France is hanging by it finger nails and this U.S. thing has really backfired on them. I will now drop this until we have stats and some GDP numbers because it really is not that important
Economy France - Industries: machinery, chemicals, automobiles, metallurgy, aircraft, electronics; textiles, food processing; tourism - Exports: $307.8 billion f.o.b. (2002) Exports - commodities: machinery and transportation equipment, aircraft, plastics, chemicals, pharmaceutical products, iron and steel, beverages Exports - partners: EU 61.3% (Germany 14.7%, UK 9.8%, Spain 9.6%, Italy 8.8%), US 8.7% (2001) Imports: $303.7 billion f.o.b. (2002 est.) Imports - commodities: machinery and equipment, vehicles, crude oil, aircraft, plastics, chemicals Imports - partners: EU 58.6% (Germany 16.7%, Benelux 7.0%, Italy 9.1%, UK 7.5%), US 8.9% (2001) - http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/fr.html#Econ The French economy http://www.francetresor.gouv.fr/oat/us/info56.html