France hit with 'industrial catastrophe' as tourism numbers plummet

Strike action, terror threats and poor weather have combined to create an "industrial catastrophe" for French tourism. The numbers of Japanese, Russian and Chinese tourists have all dropped, according to tourist board figures, while the Grand Palais museum reported a 43.9% slump in visitors, the Arc de Triomphe lost more than a third, and visitor numbers to the Palace of Versailles were down 20%. Hotel revenues dropped 15% this summer, with high-end establishments seeing reductions of between 30 and 40%.

Islamist attacks have scared off thousands of tourists from Paris and its top attractions, helping rob the French capital of about 750 million euros (£644 million) in revenues, officials said on Tuesday.

Strikes and floods have also taken their toll, overshadowing a boost from the Euro 2016 soccer championships and leaving the tourism industry in need of massive new investment and a rescue package, representatives of the sector said.

'It's time to realise that the tourism sector is going through an industrial disaster,' the head of the Paris region tourist board, Frederic Valletoux, said in a statement.

Visitors to the Arc de Triomphe fell more than a third in the first half of 2016 from the same period a year earlier, the tourist board said.

During the first six months of 2016 tourism in the Paris region has slumped by 6.4 per cent

Disneyland Paris said strike action, terror threats and poor weather led to Euro Disney posting a nine-percent drop in sales between April and June

The Grand Palais museum reported a 43.9 percent slump and the Palace of Versailles just short of 20 percent.

'Hotels are already laying off staff though they're not saying it. This industry is on its knees and it needs relief measures now. Hoteliers need the weapons to fight back,' Georges Panayotis, head of hotel research firm MKG group, told Reuters.

Hotel revenues were down 15 percent this summer in the Paris region, he said. Wealthier tourists in particular were staying away, with high-end hotels reporting declines of between 30 and 40 percent.

Targeted VAT cuts and other tax breaks could help, Panayotis said.

Tourism typically provides more than 7 percent of France's gross domestic product.

The French flag (left) at half mast after the terrorist attack on the Promenade des Anglais on Bastille Day in Nice. A lorry (right) which was deliberately driven into crowds killing 84 people

But it has had to contend with a series of disasters, from Islamic State attacks that killed 130 people in Paris last year to the carnage when a gunman drove a truck into crowds celebrating Bastille Day in the Riviera city of Nice this July.

'The Nice attack derailed our hopes of a recovery. It's a dramatic situation and there will be job cuts in the sector if things do not get better by the end of the year,' Christian Navet, head of the UMIH-Paris-Ile-de-France hotel federation, said.

The number of Japanese visitors almost halved in the first half of the year from last, according to tourist board figures. Russian numbers were down by more than a third and Chinese by almost a fifth.

Police stand by a memorial outside the Bataclan club in Paris in November

Weak activity in France contributed to a fall in first-half operating profit for French group AccorHotels. Air France-KLM expects its unit revenues to decline in July and August, partly due to the situation at home.

Only massive new investments can help protect jobs, said the tourist board's Valletoux, urging Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault to meet officials from the sector.

'This is no longer the time for communication campaigns but to set up a relief plan,' he said.

In a message on Twitter, Ayrault said he was adding 500,000 euros to the 1 million-euro budget the state was contributing under a global 2.5 million-euro plan unveiled in March to promote France as a tourist destination.

Famous tourist attractions in Paris, such as the Louvre (pictured), have not seen as many visitors as they are used to

The Royal Palace of Versailles near Paris, France, is another tourist attraction that normally draws the crowds

TOURISTS FLOCK TO BRUSSELS DISTRICT WHERE ISLAMIC STATE TERRORISTS LIVED Molenbeek, the Brussels borough that gained unwanted notoriety last year when Islamic State militants from the area attacked Paris, has become an unlikely tourist draw - and not just for those with ghoulish tastes. Even as the broader city's visitor numbers dropped after the French bloodshed and the March bombings in Brussels itself, tour guides report growing interest from those keen to see the long-blighted district for themselves and view an industrial heritage that once earned Molenbeek the sobriquet 'Little Manchester'. 'We are seeing rising curiosity about Molenbeek from Belgian tourists and foreigners alike since the attacks,' said Corentin Descamps, an adviser to Brussels' tourism agency. A borough of 95,000 people, up to 40 percent of them Muslim and mainly of Moroccan origin, it sits just across a once warehouse-lined canal from the old heart of Brussels, whose Renaissance Grand-Place, beer bars, chocolate shops and art galleries are the more typical destinations for tourist throngs. Belgian anti-terror police climb high on an apartment block during a raid, in search of suspected Muslim fundamentalists linked to the deadly attacks in Paris, in the Brussels suburb of Molenbeek, November 16. 2015 Long shunned by fellow Bruxellois, Molenbeek hit world headlines in November when locals with links to Syria took part in the attacks that killed 130 in Paris. Then in March, key fugitive Salah Abdeslam was caught there after four months hiding just a few streets from his family home and suicide bombers struck Brussels airport and the city's metro. Some of the new visitors curious about the neighbourhood do have a ghoulish streak and ask to see places associated with the IS attacks, tour guide Alan Debaecke conceded. 'There are sometimes people looking for the places where those people lived or where they were arrested, where they were in hiding,' he said. He tries to avoid satisfying their curiosity, however. Fugitive Salah Abdeslam was caught in Molenbeek after four months hiding just a few streets from his family home Many tours take in Molenbeek's elegant town hall and the pretty square in front which hosts a lively twice-weekly market; it also houses the apartment where Abdeslam grew up alongside an elder brother who was among the Paris suicide bombers. Debaecke says most tourists are happy to let him show them a bustling neighbourhood where urban regeneration projects are drawing in affluent loft dwellers but also aim to improve lives for locals in one of Belgium's poorest boroughs, a 10-minute underground train ride from European Union headquarters. 'They're amazed to see the image they get of this area is totally unlike what they've seen in the media,' he said. 'They realise most of the population are people like you and me.' Officials report falls in visitor numbers to Brussels since November. Data is still being collated but officials stress that Molenbeek remains a marginal attraction for most visitors. However, numbers are also aided by the opening of new attractions, such as the Millennium Iconoclast Museum of Art (MIMA) in the century-old Belle-Vue brewery on the canal, and interest in this former international hub for crafts. La Fonderie museum displays the cast of a bronze lion, made in Molenbeek 80 years ago for American sculptor Paul Manship, which adorns his grand Art Deco gateway at New York's Bronx Zoo. 'The people we hitch-hiked to Brussels with told us how dangerous Molenbeek was,' said Jacob, a young Swede, after a visit organised by the Brussels Greeters organisation. 'But after doing the tour, we see this is not the case at all.' Some locals resent the global attention and the talk of the area as a 'breeding ground' for jihad. And, while tourist interest in its history is welcome, many want to forget the recent past. Rachid sees people regularly, as he waits for a bus to his job at a chocolate factory, staring at the house where Abdeslam was arrested. 'It's still going on. It'll never end,' he said of the unwanted attention. 'People should forget about it. It's all over.' Advertisement !- - ad: https://mads.dailymail.co.uk/v8/ru/news/none/article/other/mpu_factbox.html?id=mpu_factbox_1 - ->