Feb. 22–PARIS — The Paris region hosted a record 33.8 million tourists in 2017, after two years in which numbers slumped due to fears following major terrorist attacks, regional tourism authorities said Thursday.
Tourist arrivals in the Ile de France region around the French capital were up from 30.9 million in 2016, and beat the bumper year of 2014, when 32.7 million tourists arrived.
The figures relate to hotel stays. Including private rentals and stays with family and friends, total arrivals may have been as high as 49 million, Sandrine Chausson of the regional tourism committee said.
French tourists represented 52.2 per cent of the arrivals.
The US and Britain were the top foreign markets, making up 15.1 per cent and 12 per cent of international arrivals respectively.
The biggest growth, though, was in the Japanese market, with arrivals up 32.8 per cent.
Tourism in France was affected by the series of terrorist attacks that took place in 2015 and 2016, claiming more than 230 lives.
Seventeen people were killed in attacks in 2015 on the Paris offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and on a kosher supermarket.
In November 2015, coordinated attacks on the city's Bataclan theatre, nearby bars and restaurants and the Stade de France stadium, claimed by the Islamic State extremist group, left 130 dead.
In July 2016, 86 people died during Bastille Day festivities in Nice when an attacker drove a truck into the crowded beach-front Promenade des Anglais.
