Big Apple : Best spot for french tourists

New York top
2008 is a record year for the number of French visitors to the Big Apple.

With 561,000 French visitors to New York last year, or 33% more than in 2007, 2008 appears to be a record year in terms of attendance French, announced Thursday, September 17, NYC & Company, the Office of Tourism the Big Apple. Compared to 2006, the increase is even more impressive and reached 84%. The France is always positioned as the 3rd source market for New York after the United Kingdom and Germany.

The tourist office in New York notes, the destination remains the most popular with French tourists in the United States with 45% market share. The growth in attendance for the French city is well above the increase seen across the United States (+25%) last year compared to 2007.

The weak dollar has attracted French tourists. So it's no surprise that shopping (89%) remains high on their activities. He is ahead of the release (78%) and visits to historical sites and monuments (61% and 58%).

The agency also found that 84% of trips made last year were vacation approval, the number of business trips tend to decline.

Also thanks to the euro-dollar has played for the French in 2008, the length of stay "climb significantly" to more than 8.6 nights with, accordingly, an average basket increased to $ 1,600. This represents more than 900 million dollars in revenue for the city of New York last year, solely because of French tourists.