British tourists snub French holidays in favor of Spain and Italy
Photo Credit: Tourists stand in the rain to watch the Notre Dame in Paris. Flickr / Gideon
Skift Take
British tourists’ perceptions of prices following the recession has impacted their travel decisions with Italy and Spain looking like a bargain in comparison to the haute experience they seek in France.
From Henry V to Peter Mayle, Britons have long been invading France with enthusiasm in order to claim a small corner of it for themselves.
But figures published by the Office for National Statistics suggest that the nation's love affair with the chateaux of the Dordogne and the patisseries of Paris may be on the wane, with visitor numbers having slumped by a fifth in four years.
The ONS's annual survey of travel trends found that British visitors to France numbered 8.8 million in 2012, well down on the 2008 figure of 10.9 million. Even more gallingly for the Gauls, while visits to North America were also down last year by 7.5% to 3.4 million, Sp
