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France sees less foreign visitors in Q2 due to terror risk, weather

Xinhua, August 20, 2016 Adjust font size:

France, the world's top tourism destination, attracted less foreign holidaymakers in the second quarter of the year compared to the same period in 2015 as high terror risks and unfavorable weather kept tourists on edge, the national statistics bureau Insee said Friday.

In the three months to end-June, the number of nightly stays in France by foreign tourists declined by 8.5 percent from the second quarter in the previous year.

French tourists also showed less enthusiasm to visit their own country. Some 2.9 percent fewer local visitors were reported during the second three months of the years, Insee data showed.

In Paris, nightly stays in hotels fell sharply by 12.9 percent over the period tainted by terror risk and long weeks of social strain and successive strikes against labor reform.

Due to dull weather and fewer pubic holidays in the spring, stays in camping sites fell by 6.8 percent compared to the second quarter last year, according to Insee.

Foreign holidaymakers have been discouraged to visit France, which terrorist cells consider a top target following its military offensive in Syria and Iraq. Series of shooting and explosion rocked the French capital in January and November last year, killing 150 people.

Tourism in France accounts for 7 percent of the national output and employs two million people. Endit