'We have to tell Chinese that Paris is safe'

Tourism chief says improved security and quicker visas aimed at winning back worried visitors

French authorities are beefing up security and have pledged to issue visas faster to Chinese as part of efforts to win back tourists scared off by recent terrorist attacks on its cities.

In an exclusive interview, Francois Navarro, general director of the Paris Region Tourist Board, revealed overall visitor numbers to Paris have plummeted since November, when Islamic militants launched an attack on the French capital.

On Nov 13, assailants killed 130 people with guns and bombs at the Bataclan theater, surrounding cafes and restaurants, and outside the Stade de France, where an international football match was in progress.

Early last year, Islamic militants also killed 10 journalists and two police officers during an attack on the offices of Charlie Hebdo, the satirical magazine, in central Paris.

Violent incidents in July in Nice, where a man killed 84 by intentionally driving a truck into crowds of people on Bastille Day, as well as in Munich, Wuerzburg and Ansbach in Germany are also likely to affect tourism in Europe as a whole as people consider their safety.

Several Chinese tour operators, including Ctrip, offered refunds to customers booked to travel to Nice after the July 14 attack.

"We have to tell Chinese tourists that Paris is safe, and that all our tourist professionals are waiting to welcome them," says Navarro, who was speaking before the Nice attack.

Chinese form one of the biggest visitor groups to the Paris region. According to official data, 1.2 million Chinese visited last year, a year-on-year increase of 49 percent. It was the first time the number had passed 1 million, Navarro says. "Yet in the first three months of 2016, the number of overall tourists to Paris has fallen by 13 percent."

To reassure the public and arrest the trend, he says greater emphasis has been placed on security, with more police officers on the streets.

During the Euro 2016 football tournament, held in June and July, authorities said that no fewer than 72,000 police officers and gendarmes had been mobilized, with 3,400 assigned to guard stadiums and fan zones, and that "particular effort has been made to increase video surveillance".

Jean-Marc Ayrault, the French minister of foreign affairs and international development, also said this month that police have been doubled at popular tourist spots such as the Eiffel Tower.

Along with security, Navarro says France is also working on making it easier for Chinese to visit the country.

Nine new visa centers are to be opened in China, including in smaller cities in Hubei and Hainan provinces.

"At the beginning, for the French market, Chinese tourism came only from major cities like Beijing and Shanghai. Now, all the big cities and second-tier cities are very important to us," the tourism chief says.

France has 12 consulates in China, but it is still not enough to meet the demand, he says, adding that the government is also working to speed up the visa application process.

Chinese can already receive a visa within 48 hours, and sometimes within 24 hours, according to Navarro. "At the moment we have biometric issues because we have to collect fingerprints, and there are still some problems in some cities, but I think it will be resolved in a couple of months," he adds. "France is one of the most efficient countries to deliver visas for Chinese, and we want to attract more to Paris."

Li Xiaotong, who runs Mandarin Voyages, a travel agency in Paris that has operated for more than 20 years, says the company's turnover this year is so far about 20 percent down on 2015.

Due to the terrorist threat, she says, many Chinese who had planned to visit France have instead switched to other destinations such as Britain, the United States or Japan.

On top of that, Li says the drop in tourists could also be attributed to Euro 2016, which forced up the prices of hotel rooms.

tuoyannan@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily European Weekly 07/29/2016 page8)