100 million tourists, but no protests – what’s France’s secret?

Once upon a time, the holiday industry was seen as nothing but a force for good, bolstering economies, spreading wealth and broadening people’s horizons. These days, however, barely a week passes without a slew of headlines about the negative impacts of mass tourism.

Try typing “tourism” into your favourite search engine. You’ll be presented with news stories about Spain mulling over “alarming” new rules for holidaymakers, support for fresh levies on visitors to Edinburgh, “panic” in Greece over its recent decision to target cruise passengers and praise for Norway for “shying away” from tourism. The BBC says we’ve just witnessed “the summer that tourism fell apart”.

Inevitably, Prince Harry has waded into the debate. This week, during a visit to New York, he called tourism a “double-edged sword” which can “if mismanaged, inflict significant harm”. (He said he came to the conclusion after “conversation and debate around campfires” with people he is “proud to call friends”.)

Against this backdrop, and with September 27 being World Tourism Day, the publication of the UN World Tourism Organisation’s (UNWTO) latest “World Tourism Barometer” provides an opportunity to reflect on the countries where tourism is growing fastest. We’ve crunched the UNWTO’s data to draw some interesting conclusions.

The UNWTO’s stats show that 2023 was a landmark year for France. It became the first country to welcome 100m international tourists in a single year, up 7.3 per cent on its figure for 2022 and up 10 per cent on 2019. That’s three times more annual visitors than Greece (the ninth most visited country in 2023 – excluding those which have not supplied data) and four times more than Japan. Yet, while overtourism has become a political hot potato in both Greece and Japan (as well as Italy, Spain and beyond), France has seen barely a murmur about too many holidaymakers (occasional grumbles about Emily in Paris-inspired influencers aside).

What’s its secret? Size clearly matters – France is bigger than all of the aforementioned countries, so there’s more room to spread out your beach towel. But the difference isn’t huge – France gets 404 annual tourists per square mile; Spain 442.

Anthony Peregrine, Telegraph Travel’s France expert, offered a couple of theories: “France simply doesn’t attract quite so many of the people who, bottles in hand, disturb decent locals at 2.30am. There is, of course, poor behaviour on the Riviera but it’s mainly by millionaires and they have a way of getting themselves indulged.

“French families also tend to holiday in France, often in those seaside places where we might expect evening affairs to get out of hand. Their presence – I know; I’ve seen it – has a calming, even civilising effect. And, anyway, French holiday resort locals are far less likely to demonstrate against other French people than they would be against foreign visitors.”

Anna Richards, a travel writer based in Lyon, added: “I think [the lack of anti-tourism protests] is because the French themselves holiday so much within their own country, so the tourism industry is set up to handle large numbers of visitors. Also, although there are hotspots that suffer from overtourism (places like Étretat in Normandy, for example), people don’t just flock to one area of France – its attractions are numerous and well spread out.”

The rise of Qatar – and Albania

Where has tourism grown fastest since before the Covid pandemic? Few will be surprised to learn that Middle Eastern countries – eager to spend their way into our hearts – have seen some of the sharpest increases in annual arrivals.

Qatar, which hosted the 2022 FIFA World Cup and has built scores of luxury hotels in recent years, welcomed 2.14m visitors in 2019. Last year that figure stood at 4.05m, an impressive 89.3 per cent increase.

Also among the top five are Saudi Arabia (up 56.3 per cent from 2019), which hopes holidaymakers will set aside concerns about human rights to help it reach 100 million annual tourists by 2030, and Bahrain (up 44.4 per cent 2019), which, with its raucous nightclubs and high-end restaurants, is luring footballers from the Saudi Pro League.

Europe’s fastest-growing destination is another country that is betting big on tourism: Albania. A cost-effective alternative to the likes of Italy and Croatia, it recorded 9.7m overseas visitors in 2023, up 58.3 per cent from 6.1m in 2019. And its prime minister, Edi Rama, doesn’t want to stop there, with the goal of luring 30m foreign visitors a year by 2030.

Other emerging destinations include El Salvador and Colombia – both of which are shedding their reputations for violence and organised crime – and Cape Verde, an underrated alternative to the Canary Islands for winter sun.

Malta: Europe’s next overtourism hotspot?

When it comes to 2024, the UNWTO has data for the first half of the year, for some countries. Its stats offer clues as to why parts of Europe are seeing a backlash against tourism. Spain has seen a 12 per cent rise in visitors year-on-year, for example, while for Greece the increase is 15.5 per cent.

They might also provide an indication about the places where local angst about the holiday industry might next appear. Malta, in particular, stands out. For the first seven months of 2024 it saw a 22.4 per cent increase in arrivals, the fourth highest figure among European countries. It is also small – just 122 square miles – so its 3m annual visitors works out at 24,393 per square mile.

Juliet Rix, Telegraph Travel’s Malta expert, said: “On my last visit, Valletta – for the first time – felt uncomfortably full. Though the cruise ship crowds have long visited, it has always been easy to escape by leaving behind the main attractions. No longer. Malta may need to start thinking about taking action. It hasn’t yet – a new hotel (albeit incorporating a smaller old one) with 600 rooms has just opened. The Maltese have always welcomed tourists and will probably continue to do so for the moment, but there is indeed now a risk of overtourism and all that that implies.”

Other countries having a productive year include the Nordic nations of Norway, Sweden and Finland, where arrivals are up 15.1, 12.9 and 11.4 per cent, respectively. Perhaps we really are swapping the sweltering Med for a “coolcation”, after all?

Asia recovers – finally

Introducing its latest World Tourism Barometer, the UNWTO declared that global tourism is pretty much back to normal, with arrivals hitting 96 per cent of pre-pandemic levels for the first half of 2024. That’s largely thanks to the Asian market finally rebounding.

Japan, for example, welcomed 25.1 million international tourists in 2023, still 21 per cent down on 2019’s total of 31.9 million. But for 2024 so far, arrivals are 61.7 per cent up, year on year, with many taking advantage of the tumbling value of the yen – suggesting a final figure approaching 40 million is possible. This helps explain why overtourism concerns are snowballing in the Land of the Rising Sun.

The world’s most touristy country? Step forward Andorra

Finally, which country can claim to be the most tourist-oriented in the world, to which, perhaps, the UNWTO should decamp and set up its new headquarters? We’d like to nominate tiny Andorra. It has just 83,523 residents but welcomed 4,048,000 overnight visitors in 2023, creating a world-beating ratio of 48.5 tourists per citizen. That’s twice as many as its nearest rival, the gambling haven of Macau.