The Ile-de-France region

Tourism and international special events: Ile-de-France at the no. 1 position worldwide

With 42 million tourists in 2002 and 11.3 million people visiting on business annually, Paris Ile-de-France has been the world's no. 1 tourist destination for many years. It has a standard of infrastructure commensurate with this position.

Ile-de-France, the world's no. 1 tourist destination

Ile-de-France can offer the tourist an unrivalled range of attractions, combining a world-famous historic heritage, natural heritage and diverse, high-performing tourist amenities such as Disneyland Paris, the Louvre, Eiffel Tower and the Palace of Versailles. New amenities and products regularly expand the range of attractions offered to the tourist.

In addition to this range of tourist attractions - particularly accessible to tour operators - Ile-de-France offers numerous opportunities for leisure breaks, such as châteaux visits, gourmet weekends, romantic cruises, countryside rambles or drives around nature parks.

Apart from welcoming tourists, Paris Ile-de-France has acquired extensive experience at organising large-scale international events over the years. More recently, the Football World Cup, staged in 1998, was judged unanimously as a very successful event. Its success was based on the stadiums and associated infrastructure, the welcome extended to spectators (accommodation, information), travel needs of millions of spectators, the press, support teams and security provided. In 2003, the International Athletics were organised in the region, and drew the same approval from the public. The Paris Ile-de-France region has put itself forward as a candidate for the 2012 Olympic Games.

Business tourism and international events

Ile-de-France is an exceptionally dynamic area with regard to business tourism. In 2002 the region hosted 1,652 special events, of which 420 were exhibitions and 228 meetings of international associations. Thus, for the twenty-second consecutive year, it was no. 1, ahead of Brussels and London, in organising international meetings (Union of international associations). The close proximity of special events brings distinct benefits to companies present in the region, which are thus able more easily and inexpensively to access numerous industrial and business resources, so facilitating a good knowledge of the market.

Each year, Paris Ile-de-France hosts 2000 wide-ranging special events - 360 of which are international-scale events - such as "the world of the machine-tool" (WMT) and the international food exhibition (IFE). Its great expertise at hosting special events results in a genuine desire for continuous innovation, as is testified by many initiatives such as " Paris, World Capital", a gathering of 17 professional fashion houses and the fashion world under the banner "Paris, Creativity Capital".

Paris Ile-de-France region offers a huge capacity to host international exhibitions, with around 615,000 m² of undercover floorspace, distributed over 11 centres. Two of those centres each have a capacity of over 200,000 m², the Paris-Expo centre at Porte de Versailles and the Parc International des Expositions at Paris-Nord Villepinte. Now twinned with Le Bourget, the Parc International des Expositions at Paris-Nord Villepinte is able to host the largest exhibitions and trade fairs, and benefits from the facilities of Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle international airport and the business aviation airfield at Le Bourget.

Ile-de-France region's market share, expressed as a percentage of floorspace hired annually in the six main European countries, Germany, Belgium, Spain, France, Italy and the United Kingdom, is estimated at 20%, putting Paris - Ile-de-France in second position behind Germany. With regard to business congresses, Paris Ile-de-France has been the world's no. 1 city for 20 years, organising on average 300 international congresses.

• Top 5 cities for meetings of international associations - 2002 (source : UAI)
• 1. Paris (1st in 2001; 1st in 2000)
• 2. Brussels (3rd in 2001; 2nd in 2000)
• 3. London (2nd in 2001; 3rd in 2000)
• 4. Vienna (4th in 2001; 4th in 2000)
• 5. Singapore (5th in 2001; 6th in 2000)

Ile-de-France region is also Europe's leader in trade fairs and exhibitions. 500 exhibitions, of which 230 are international professional bodies, are arranged, on average, in the region each year. Almost 95,000 companies attend, of which 25% are foreign companies, receiving 9 million visitors, 7% of them being foreigners.

High-quality hospitality infrastructure

The ability of Paris Ile-de-France to hold onto its place as leader in tourism and organising large events can be explained by the "safe environment offered by the region".

Foreign exhibitors and visitors pay special attention to the strategic attraction Paris can offer as a city geared to hospitality, notably the high standard of its international travel facilities, its market size and commercial and technological potential, the quality and range of its accommodation, the creativity of exhibition organisers and the quality of its cultural and artistic heritage. With regard to accommodation, the region has a first-rate range of hotels, based on 2,300 establishments with a capacity of 140,000 rooms (ORTIF). This extensive range puts the region easily at the top of European capital regions.