Chinese company treats 6,400 employers to French holiday

Employees of China's Tiens Group attend a parade organized by CEO Li Jinyuan as part of a four-day celebration weekend for the 20th anniversary of his company, on the Promenade des Anglais, Nice, southeastern France, May 8, 2015. [Photo/IC]

PARIS - China's Tiens Group Co Ltd is treating more than half of its 12,000 employees to a four-day holiday in France and has booked up 140 hotels in the capital Paris as part of the package, a French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said on Thursday.

According to Le Parisien newspaper, the trip by the 6,400 strong group included a mass visit to the Louvre museum and they are expected to spend 13 million euros ($15 million) in total.

The spokeswoman said the company's chairman Li Jinyuan met Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius on Wednesday and "the group will be in Nice tomorrow and the day after".

The Tianjin-based company booked 4760 rooms in 79 fours and five-star hotels in Cannes and Monaco, in addition to 146 buses, for his employees, setting a new world record as biggest-ever tour group to visit France.

According to the Tiens website, Li founded the group in 1995, and has expanded it into an international conglomerate with businesses in biotechnology, health management, e-commerce, hotel and tourism among others.

The 57-year-old is listed on Forbes' 2011 list of the world's billionaires.

France, which is struggling to revive its economy, is the most visited country in the world, according to the latest UN figures, and is seeing an increasing number of tourists from China.

Almost 85 million foreigners a year support a 150 billion euro ($177 billion) industry that delivers 7 percent of the nation's GDP, according to government figures.

In 2013, the vast majority of visitors to France were from other European countries, but about 3.1 million came from the United States and 1.7 million from China.

($1 = 0.8882 euros)