Tourism in France
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France attracts more than 60 million tourists every year, making it the most popular tourist destination in the world. Recently however, its popularity has been diminishing with the increased convenience of cheaper countries in Eastern Europe.
France is one of the classics among tourist countries. It offers mountain ranges, coastlines like in Brittany or along the Mediterranean Sea, cities with a rich cultural heritage, châteaux and castles like Versailles, countryside, vineyards in Burgundy, and the city of Paris with the Louvre, boulevards, the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe and cathedral of Notre-Dame.
In the eastern parts of France there are skiing resorts in the Alps. Other notable cities are Avignon with the Popes' palace, Arles, Aix-en-Provence, Marseille, Nice, Orléans on the Loire River, Toulouse on the Garonne, Strasbourg on the border with Germany, and Lyon.
France's tourist industry, however, is not limited to the towns and cities, Paris and the Alpine ski resorts. All over France rental accommodations and hotels are available. For example, the English like to spend their summers in the Dordogne valley, the Spanish vacation in Biarritz and St Jean de Luz on the Basque coast, and the Irish often visit Lourdes.
France offers a high-speed train service called TGV (train à grande vitesse) as well as regional services, both operated by the SNCF.
Many have speculated that if (for whatever reason) tourism came to a complete halt in France the economy would suffer greatly, with the possibility of a near-total economic collapse likely. A very similar situation exists in Spain and Italy where the overall econonomies of those nations are also heavily dependent on tourism and the massive amount of money that it brings in every year.de:Tourismus in Frankreich fr:Tourisme en France