France is hurting from the grassroots tourism boycott by Americans who have voted with their wallets not to support a country which double-crosses its friends and allies. Maybe this will be an example of economic sanctions that work.
American anger over the French stand against the war in Iraq has led them to boycott France in huge numbers.Posted by Alan at July 30, 2003 06:15 AMThe president of the French travel agents’ union has estimated the number of American visitors plunged by up to 80 per cent in the first half of 2003 compared to the same period in 2002, when some four million US tourists came to France.
César Balderacchi’s calculation was far more gloomy than that of the French ministry of tourism, which says numbers fell by 30 per cent in the first three months of 2003. But bookings may have fallen further during the Iraq war itself.
Americans are not even climbing the Eiffel Tower to eat in the monument’s celebrated Jules Verne restaurant, where the number of British visitors has overtaken them.
Fifty-nine years after D-Day, United States veterans are even staying away from Normandy beaches and cemeteries. Le Roosevelt restaurant on Utah Beach said business was down 30 per cent this year, despite its strawberry milkshakes and walls papered with pages from the New York Times. The Hotel de la Mère Poulard at Mont St Michel in Normandy reports losing 50 per cent of its US custom.