Paris is once again the world’s top tourist destination, France’s regional tourism body has declared, a month after authorities angrily dismissed reports that London had overtaken the French capital as the world’s most popular city.
Despite some tough global economic conditions, it said 2013 was an “ exceptional year” for tourism in Paris and the surrounding Ile-de-France region, with foreign visitors at “the highest level in 10 years”.
In all, some 32.3 million tourists flocked to the City of Lights, hotel figures suggest. Nearly 15.5 million of these were foreign visitors, representing an 8.2 percent increase from the previous year.
The largest number of foreign tourists were Britons – some 2.1 million visitors – followed by Americans, Germans, Italians and Chinese, whose numbers shot up by almost 53 per cent to 881,000.
The only black spot was a drop in Frenchclientele, some 7.5 per cent less than in 2012.
The figures came weeks after a row over which capital attracted the most tourists - London, or Paris.
Figures published in January showed the number of foreign visitors to London surged by almost 20 per cent last summer to a new record of 4.9 million between July and September.
“For the first time in history, the city [London] is on course to welcome over 16 million overseas visitors in one year,” the British capital’s tourism agency London &Partners said in a statement.
This led French right-wing daily Le Figaro to declare: “London dethrones Paris”.
Boris Johnson, London’s mayor, weighed in.
“These incredible figures prove that London is without doubt the greatest city on the planet,” he extolled.
Anne Hidalgo, favourite to succeed Bertrand Delano?, her fellow Socialist, as mayor of Paris in elections this month, then hit back at a “boastful” Mr Johnson, saying: “London aggressively sells itself, often in a way that goes beyond the truth.”
She said Paris beats London hands down in tourism, start-ups, shopping, safety and as a place to live with families.
Later she toned down her comments, saying: “Yes, the two cities are competitors – but if we also work together, we can be a global partnership to reckon with.”
法国地区旅游机构称，法国巴黎仍是世界最受欢迎的旅游城市。就在一个月前，有报告指伦敦已取代巴黎，成为世界观光之都，法国否认了这一观点。
法国方面的报告称，尽管全球经济形势严峻，2013年对巴黎和周围法兰西岛(俗称“大巴黎区”，Ile-de-France)的旅游业来说是“特别的一年”，外国游客人数达到10年来的最高水平。
据酒店数据显示，去年共有3230万名游客来到“光之城”(the City of Lights)巴黎，其中约有1550万人是外国游客，比上年增长8.2%。
外国游客人数中，英国人占首位，达到210万人。其次是来自美国、德国、意大利和中国的游客，中国游客人数增长了53%，达到88.1万人。
唯一的不足是法国国内到巴黎大区的游客人数有所下降，比2012年减少了7.5%。
这些数据公开的数周前，关于伦敦和巴黎谁才是吸引游客人数最多城市的争论引发热议。
今年一月份公布的数据显示，去年夏天到伦敦旅游的外国游客增长了20%，在七月到九月这段期间达到490万人，创历史新高。
英国伦敦发展促进署(London&Partners)在一份声明中说，“伦敦历史上首次在一年内迎来了超过1600万名旅客。”
法国传统右翼媒体《费加罗报》(Le Figaro)甚至宣称“伦敦推翻了巴黎”。
伦敦市长鲍里斯·约翰逊(Boris Johnson)也参与到讨论中来，他称赞“这些惊人的数字证明了伦敦无疑是这个星球上最伟大的城市”。
作为接任巴黎市长贝特朗·德拉诺埃(Bertrand Delano?)的热门人选，安妮·伊达尔戈 (Anne hidalgo)在本月选举时抨击伦敦市长约翰逊，认为“伦敦过分吹嘘，与事实不符。”
她说巴黎在旅游业，新兴企业，购物，安全和宜居环境等方面远胜伦敦。
不过之后她又缓和了言论的语气：“没错，两个城市是竞争者——但如果我们能共同协
