01 — Core market measures
Five numbers define the market. Each sits on its own perimeter — do not blend them.
| Measure | Value | Scope |
|---|---|---|
| Outbound visits | 38.0M 2025 | Resident visits abroad; UN Tourism series via the VisitBritain market profile |
| Travel expenditure abroad | €57.4bn +4% YoY | Banque de France travel debit, all purposes; DGE/Atout France 2025 review, Feb 2026 |
| Nights spent abroad | 248M +4% YoY | Same review; Mediterranean destinations lead |
| Travel propensity | ≈25% | Share of French residents travelling abroad in a year; CBI market study |
| Spend per trip / per night | €1,408 / €133 | CBI estimate, 2024 trips — commercial series, marked as such |
What France does not publish. Unlike the Bundesbank, the Banque de France does not release a country-by-country split of the travel debit at decision-grade granularity. The destination map below is therefore built from the receiving countries' own border statistics — a different perimeter, labelled as such wherever it appears.
02 — Where French residents travel
A short-haul Mediterranean market with a Maghreb extension. The anchors, each on the destination's own count:
| Destination | French volume | Scope |
|---|---|---|
| Spain | #1 by a wide margin | First foreign destination for French residents every measured year |
| Morocco | 1.5M arrivals | French arrivals at Moroccan borders, 2024; UN Tourism via CBI |
| Tunisia | 0.8M arrivals | Same series, 2024 |
| Italy · Portugal · Greece | Core Mediterranean set | Top-tier leisure destinations on the EDV-Orchestra panel |
| Senegal | 47% of all arrivals | French share of Senegal's inbound — the dependency outlier |
One perimeter warning, worth making in an outbound dossier: the widely quoted Q1 2026 air-booking prints of Mexico +19%, China +17%, Canada +7%, Spain +8% are inbound — bookings by those markets into France, from the DGE/Atout France 2025 review. They describe France as a destination, not the French traveller, and they appear in our France country file, not in this ledger.
03 — The 2026 pulse
Booking signals, not realized arrivals. The EDV-Orchestra panel covers French tour operators and distributors; France accounted for 46% of panel bookings in April 2026, so the panel is close to the market — but it remains an organized-travel sample.
And then the twist: August files +2.9%, August revenue +7.6%, on an average basket of €2,887. The late booker of 2026 bought less often and paid more. The Toussaint cut (end-September) repeats the pattern by destination: long-haul files −19% overall — Mauritius −19.4% — while short-haul value held: UK +44.5%, Italy +19%.
04 — Air corridors and gateways
Throughput is an aviation measure — all nationalities, including connecting traffic — not a count of French tourists. It still tells you where the seats are.
Paris-CDG 72.0M (+2.5%; still 5.4% below 2019) — the long-haul hub · Paris-Orly 34.9M (+5.5%; 9.7% above 2019) — domestic, overseas and European point-to-point · Nice 15.2M — the Côte d'Azur premium market · Marseille 11.3M — low-cost and Maghreb flows · Lyon 10.7M. National total ≈210.5M passengers (+2.3%).
First half 2026: CDG −0.2%, Orly +2.0% (June alone: CDG −2.2%). The hub has stopped growing; the growth is in the regions and in low-cost — Transavia based at Orly plus five regional fields, easyJet at CDG, Volotea across the regions, Ryanair on three bases (DGAC).
Gateway mix matters for luxury: CDG's flat year caps the long-haul premium feeder, while Orly and the regionals feed the Mediterranean volume game. A Maldivian resort reads CDG; a Balearic one reads Orly, Marseille and Nice.
05 — What it means for luxury hospitality
Four operating rules for anyone selling to the French guest:
- Treat the Med as base-load, not upside. Spain, Italy, the Maghreb and Greece absorb the volume in good years and bad; the −8.5% summer-file print is the stress case to underwrite, not the May −18% headline.
- Price the Indian Ocean as a swing market. Long-haul revenue −15% and Mauritius files −19.4% say the French long-haul cheque shrank fast in 2026; the Maldives and Mauritius compete for a smaller, later-booking, more promotion-sensitive French segment.
- Respect the political filter. US reservations −40% against a panel average near −30%: the French book carries a political discount that price alone will not fix — do not assume it transfers 1:1 to other long-haul.
- Run two tracks. Annual official flows (Banque de France debit, DGE/Atout France review) for structure; the monthly EDV-Orchestra panel for timing. There is no official country-level spend split — anyone who quotes one is estimating.
06 — The evidence ladder
Every figure in this dossier, on its own rung. The ladder is part of the product.
| Measure | Source | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| 38.0M outbound visits | UN Tourism series, via VisitBritain France market profile | Resident visits abroad, 2025 |
| €57.4bn travel debit, +4% | Banque de France balance-of-payments; DGE/Atout France review, Feb 2026 | All-purpose travel expenditure abroad |
| 248M nights abroad, +4% | Same review | Resident nights outside France |
| Morocco 1.5M / Tunisia 0.8M arrivals | UN Tourism destination counts, 2024 | Receiving-country border statistics |
| CDG 72.0M / Orly 34.9M / Nice 15.2M | Groupe ADP, Jan 2026; UAF annual files | Airport throughput, all nationalities |
| 2026 booking pulse (−18% May, +2.9% Aug files, €2,887 basket) | EDV-Orchestra panel, monthly 2026 | Organized-travel sample; France ≈46% of panel |
| €1,408 per trip / €133 per night / ≈25% propensity | CBI France market study | Commercial estimates, 2024* |
Sources. UN Tourism — outbound visits series, via the VisitBritain France market profile · Banque de France / Direction Générale des Entreprises / Atout France — 2025 tourism review, Feb 2026 (travel debit, nights abroad) · UN Tourism — destination arrival counts 2024, via CBI · Groupe ADP — December & full-year 2025 traffic figures, 15 Jan 2026; H1 2026 traffic, Jul 2026 · UAF — 2025 airport statistics (Nice, Marseille, Lyon) · DGAC — low-cost base map, 2026 · EDV (Entreprises du Voyage) / Orchestra — monthly booking panel, May–Sep 2026 · CBI (Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs) — France outbound market study. Cells marked * are commercial estimates, labelled in place; all other figures are published official or panel data on the perimeters stated. Previous issue in the series: Germany Outbound. Next: Italy.