France eyes attracting 5 mln Chinese tourists yearly

Robberies with violence targeting tourist decreased by 26 percent last year from 2014 due to France's efforts to boost security in Paris' main touristic sites, by increasing patrols, improving prevention measures and communication ways to enable foreign visitors to stay in the best possible conditions.

Welcoming 84.1 million tourists in 2014, France confirmed its position as world's most visited country with its landmark monuments, Riviera beaches and gastronomic art, Fekl told Xinhua.

Looking to this year, the government official was upbeat on reporting good performance.

"The duration of stays has increased, which is a good sign. That means that foreign tourists are well received and want to stay longer to discover our cultural and natural resources and live an experience," he said.

With the number of tourists in the world set to double, France hopes to record 100 million international tourist arrivals annually by 2020.

"France's target is to be totally in keeping with this new development, by promoting our offer and the destination of France abroad... to ensure that tourists stay longer so that we gradually become the world's leading player in terms of tourism revenue," the junior minister stressed.

Furthermore, promoting rural tourism was among the government's priorities to further diversify the domestic tourism activities away from the traditional and famous sites.

Tourism in France accounts for seven percent of the national output and employs two million people.