With the number of bookings for summer 1999 up by around 5% on this time last year, the UK looks set to become France’s biggest tourism market – beating Germany to the number-one spot.
More than 11m visits were made from the UK last year, and director of the French Tourist Office in London, Pascal Saint Pere, said this number would keep rising.
He put much of the growth down to the continued strength of the short-break market and the popularity of Eurostar and Eurotunnel.
His bullish mood is echoed by tour operators who report strong forward sales for this summer.
Meon Villas marketing director Susan Williams said: “Despite dire predictions for a fall-back in business this year, we can see no signs of this happening in France.
“The pound remains strong and we are seeing a very healthy on-going pattern of bookings for France, which traditionally books later than our Mediterranean destinations.”
Bridge Travel is similarly upbeat about its Eurostar programme, which it claims is showing an 8% increase on last year for packages based around Paris and Lille.
Brand manager for the Eurostar programme Gary Grieve said: “We expect that percentage to increase further during June, considering that the same period last year was affected by the World Cup.”
Four regions in the west of the country – Aquitaine, Midi-Pyrenees, Limousin and Brittany – are being promoted this summer in a new joint media campaign by the French Tourist Office and Brittany Ferries.
Meanwhile, the French Travel Centre, which opened just over a year ago in Piccadilly, will continue to spotlight a different region each month.
Specific destinations will also be marketed in separate promotions – a £150,000 press campaign for Corsica, for example, is planned for August and September.
The short-break market is also increasing thanks to new low-cost flights, according to Saint-Pere.
“There are new opportunities for the trade thanks to airlines like Ryanair which are operating new, low-cost routes and will work with tour operators to offer new products.”
The French Tourist Office is planning to produce a brochure promoting short breaks throughout France.
While traditional workshops for the trade are held in different regions – one for the east of France will be held in October – one major event which is sure to boost trade is planned for early next year. Vive La France, a three-day festival to be held in Olympia next January sponsored by Eurotunnel, the French Tourist Office and 2000 en France, will bring travel agents and tour operators into direct contact with the public and a minimum of 20,000 people is expected.