French government launches civility drive to halt tourism decline
France is being told to up its game in order to maintain its position as an attractive tourism destination amidst concern that poor service, shoddy hotels and a lack of patience with non-French speakers had contributed to a decline in revenues for the sector.
This hapless Fawlty Towers-style performance saw tourism revenues in 2014 dipped to €41.7 billion prompting French foreign minister to lay out plans to reinvigorate the sector by attracting 100m foreign visitors to the country in 2020, up from just 84m last year.
Launching a national campaign exhorting his fellow countrymen to hold out the hand of friendship to foreigners Fabius said: “When we serve a coffee, when we help someone to find their way, we are offering a service to someone else but we are also offering a service to France. With foreign tourists, we are all the ambassadors of France.”
To make this a reality Fabius outlined plans to play English welcome messages on trains and planes for arriving visitors as well as the introduction of online English courses for waiters and loans for the refurbishment of rundown hotels,