France looking to attract tourists from GCC

Most of the GCC tourists are from the UAE and Saudi Arabia. "Travellers from the region are high-end clientele for France's tourism and this realisation will be the base for our onward strategy to woo the affluent bitten by the travel bug from the Middle and Near East," added Mekachera. He also said that while 2009 was a good year for tourism in France, there was a six per cent decrease in tourist arrivals in the first half of 2009 from the Middle East. "Travellers from the Middle East and Near East are high contributors to French tourism industry in terms of their liberal spending habits and long stays and we believe that their share in the global outbound flows to our country is as yet not unlocked fully," Karim said. People in the GCC region tend to spend more, he added.