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Paris still world's top tourist spot

Paris has once again come out as world's top tourist destination, according to hotel occupancies.

Some 32.3 million tourists say France's city of light and romance can't be beaten.

The regional tourism body says Paris is once again the world's top tourist destination, according to hotel occupancies from the previous year.

Despite some tough global economic conditions, it says 2013 was a very good year for tourism in Paris and the surrounding Ile-de-France region, with foreign visitors at "the highest level in 10 years".

The nearly 15.5 million foreign visitors to the French capital represented an 8.2 per cent increase from 2012. The largest number (2.1 million) came across the Channel from Britain, followed by Americans, Germans, Italians and Chinese.

It also marked the first time Chinese topped the list of tourists from Asia with 881,000 flocking to Paris, surpassing the Japanese.

There was also a nearly 21 per cent increase in visitors from the Middle East, according to the Ile-de-France Regional Tourism Committee.

Ironically, it was the French themselves who seemed less enthusiastic about visiting their world famous capital last year, with the number of French tourists in Parisian hotels dropping by 7.5 per cent from 2012.


2 min read

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Updated

Source: AAP


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