Publications
Partners
Paris - France on Thursday unveiled plans to boost tourism and said it needed to eradicate its surly reputation as its status as the world's top destination for foreign visitors faced increasingly stiff competition.
Speaking at the close of a national conference on tourism, foreign minister Laurent Fabius said the government had fixed a target of attracting 100 million foreign tourists annually compared to 83 million in 2012.
Accompanying him, commerce minister Fleur Pellerin said France would try and iron out inconveniences faced by tourists, especially in getting visas.
Luxury and culture
She also said the country needed to "recover a sense of hospitality" as "too often we mistake service with servility" and said authorities should use the internet better to promote tourism.
France - and particularly Paris - has a reputation of being unfriendly to tourists especially if they do not speak French and waiters are widely viewed as rude.
The French capital's image has also suffered from muggings and other attacks on tourists, especially well-heeled Chinese travellers lured to a city they see as an epitome of fashion, luxury and culture.
More than one million Chinese visitors come to France every year and the government would like to increase that figure.
Urban tourism
Reviving the traditional Britain-France rivalry, French authorities dispute this and say the City of Lights is still the top draw.
Fabius said the tourism action plan would focus on five different areas - gastronomy and wine, sport and mountains, ecotourism, luxury and artisan work as well as urban tourism.
