A record 81.4 million foreign visitors to France in 2011

A RECORD number of 81.4 million foreign tourists dropped in on France in 2011, according to figures from the tourism ministry.

Visitors to France spent an estimated €33.4bn, which was an increase of 8.4% on 2010, but although France is the most popular tourist destination in the world, spending lags behind Spain and the US.

As for individual countries, visitors from Russia, China and Brazil saw the sharpest increases, although the rate of increase was half that of 2009 and 2010.

Tourists from the United States numbered 3.3 million, and from across Europe the figure stood at 67.8 million, although numbers have been affected by the economic crisis.

For the French themselves, they support their own country, with the number of trips and the amount of spending by them in France on the rise.