Safety first: Manuel Valls yesterday announced a raft of measures and a budget of several million euros to protect tourism, a sector leaded by the attacks and robberies like the celebrity Kim Kardashian.
After an early evening meeting with several ministers including Jean-Marc Ayrault (Foreign Affairs), the Prime Minister has formalized a plan with about 42 million.
The main part (15 million) concerns the safety of tourists, mainly in the Paris region. Specifically, it is well planned to equip several tourist areas with surveillance cameras, especially in areas recently tainted by hold-ups.
Nine million euros will go to strengthening the security of the 30 most visited cultural sites (Louvre, Orsay, Versailles, Arc de Triomphe …) whose attendance has plummeted, as well as festivals.
Other measures: thirty vans ordered to allow foreign victims to file complaints without having to go to a police station. And initialed some 80 terminals (transition accelerated biometric passport). Additional installed at Roissy and Orly.
Didier Arino, director of Protourisme cabinet, these measures are “better than nothing”. But the allocation of 40 million euros granted there “is nothing compared to the economic benefits of foreign tourists in France, amounting to 50 billion euros.”
With almost two million tourists lost in a year, the result of the attacks of the 13th November is hard for Paris and Ile-de-France where hotels and restaurants have still not found their clientele. For all of France, international arrivals between the 1st January and the 31st October fell 8.1%. It was the Japanese (39%) who have deserted France the most, followed by the Chinese (23%), Germans (10.8%) and the Americans (-4%).
