(Paris) If tourists still associate France with high-end catering, Spain and Italy take precedence for local gastronomy, shows a Toluna-Harris Interactive study carried out for Atout France among almost 30,000 international travelers .
The reception of the French and excessively high prices are harming the destination, according to this study published Tuesday by the French tourism promotion agency, as Paris prepares to receive 15 million visitors this summer for the Olympic Games.
Asked about their travel intentions, the 28,844 people from around thirty countries, surveyed online from March 12 to April 2, placed Spain and Italy tied at the top, followed by France in third position.
For high-end restaurants, wine tours, shopping and sporting events, France ranks ahead of its two Mediterranean neighbors in tourists’ associations.
On the contrary, Spain and Italy stand out in terms of charming villages, natural sites, cultural places and local gastronomy.
“One of France’s greatest difficulties is competition from its neighboring neighbors […] identified much more positively on issues which are today a weakness of the French destination: weather that is not always good, a reception of premises criticized, prices considered high, capacity to offer swimming and relaxation perceived as relatively limited…”, note the authors.
All is not lost for French catering, because Olympic spectators have already started to book, according to another study published Tuesday by the TheFork platform.
On this site (formerly La Fourchette, and owned by TripAdvisor), reservations more than doubled during the games period compared to the year before, particularly for July 26 and 27, the days of the opening ceremony .
Additionally, 50% of reservations are made at fine dining restaurants, according to TheFork.
In addition to its own data, the platform called on Opinionway to survey the intentions of the French when dining out this summer, and 90% of those surveyed said they would prefer to “have a meal at the table during the Olympic and Paralympic Games rather than to eat on the go.”
A large majority of respondents (86%) also indicate that they “want to (re)discover French cuisine, with a marked preference for regional specialties among 50% of them”.
Furthermore, the platform indicates that it has partnered with the government, particularly with a view to the Paralympic Games, to allow disabled people to locate and reserve adapted tables on its site by adding the Acceslibre filter.