Keyword: tourism

Tourists look over the city from the Saint-Jacques tower in Paris. © Philippe Wojazer / REUTERS

Being a tour guide in the most visited country in the world should be a pretty good job, buoyed by demand at France's numerous tourist attractions. But, after years of losing professional status, guides are now confronting the 'gig economy'. Online tourism platforms impose freelance instead of salaried work. And in the latest innovation, so-called 'free' tours, the tour guide is not even paid. Cécile Andrzejewski reports.

Visitor figures in French capital hit a 10-year high after ‘catastrophic’ 2016, say tourism officials. 

But although France stayed on top with 82.6 million visitors in 2016, that was a more than two percent drop from the previous year.

Around 82.5 million foreigners came to France in 2016, a fall from 2015's record of 85 million but still enough to top global tourism figures.

The last three months of 2016 saw tourism in France rebound by nearly 4 percent, after a dramatic downturn last year.

Nightly stays of foreign tourists were down 8.5% in 2nd quarter, and those by French tourists down 2.5%, with terrorism, bad weather and strike chaos cited as cause.

Official figures show 84.5 million tourists last year visited continental France, the world's leading tourist destination, up by 0.9% on 2014.

While Lise Han was working for town hall at Tours, central France, she also ran company arranging fake weddings for Chinese couples.

The new status for Champagne and Burgundy regions spurs wine tours which are seen as major draw in France's bid to increase tourist numbers.

Data so far prompts tourism minister to predict more than 85 million tourists will have holidayed in France by end of 2015, an all-time record.

The world's top tourist destination launches campaign to raise numbers of visitors to a yearly 100 million by 2020, urging the hosts to be less gruff.

Study shows France welcomed 84.7 million foreign visitors in 2013, more than in 2012 and well ahead of the United States and Spain.

Around half of Britons surveyed feel France is too expensive as a holiday destination - including those who have never been there.

Corsica’s Executive Council, the regional governmental body, has voted in favour of restricting property ownership to permanent residents.