A charm offensive to woo back tourists frightened off by terror attacks in Paris and Nice has been so successful that France is now struggling to cope with record numbers of visitors, reports The Telegraph.
People are forced to queue for hours in sweltering heat at sites such as the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, the Château of Versailles, the Mont-Saint-Michel, the Château of Chambord, in the Loire Valley, and the medieval fortress of Carcassonne, in the south west.
Tourists are being urged to make online bookings up to three months in advance to see the sights without the exhausting experience of battling through huge crowds.
Many popular attractions are considering introducing a sliding scale of charges to encourage more visits outside peak times.
But tour operators are concerned that the system might deter visitors. France is the world’s most popular tourist destination, despite a dip after a string of attacks in 2015 and 2016. Tourism represents nearly 10 per cent of its GDP and supports about three million jobs.
There are fears of Venice-style “over-tourism,” with France expected to receive more than 90 million foreign visitors this year, rising to 100 million by 2020.
Christian Mantel, head of Atout France, the national tourism development agency, said: “If nothing is done, in five years time it will be necessary to regulate the number of first-time foreign visitors to France. In Paris, 80 per cent of sites that tourists absolutely want to see are along the banks of the Seine and they are close to saturation.”
France offers a unique combination of historic châteaux, beautiful beaches and countryside, picturesque villages, glamorous Riviera nightlife and a renowned gastronomic tradition that draws tourists from across the world.