France is the world’s most visited country. So why hasn’t it turned on tourism?

In Greece, locals are spraying graffiti. In Italy, Portugal and Spain, they have resorted to water guns and mass protests.

While anti-tourism sentiment has begun to bubble over across Europe, one country is conspicuous in its relative silence. And it’s the most visited country in the world:

France.

Although it welcomes about 100 million travellers each year, France rarely makes headlines for tourism protests – a stark contrast to its neighbours, who have increasingly vented frustration over crowded cities, rising rents and bad behaviour.

There is no single reason why France has avoided the backlash, and fears that one could still be coming aren’t unfounded. But a commitment to sustainable tourism, strong infrastructure and a strategy to spread visitors across regions and seasons all play a part.

France has played the long game

Unlike many countries now scrambling to rein in mass tourism, France started laying the groundwork years ago.

Atout France, the country’s tourism development agency, has made sustainability a central tenet of its strategy. Under a 10-year roadmap – the Destination France Plan – the government earmarked €1.9 billion in 2021 to encourage greener, more responsible travel.

That means pushing for rail travel over short-haul flights, investing in mid-sized cities and nudging visitors beyond the usual suspects, like Paris or Nice.

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The country doubled down this year, with a fresh pledge to invest in tourism that’s more ecological, inclusive and digitally savvy. Tourism leaders hope that investment results in longer stays, smaller crowds and more meaningful experiences.

“The French authorities have invested in sustainable travel for years,” says Veronica Diquattro, president of B2C and supply at Omio, a travel search engine for Europe.

“The focus now is on improving the quality of tourism experiences, spreading visitor numbers throughout the year to combat overtourism and emphasising ecological, digital, social and inclusive tourism practices.”

The power of trains

France has one of the most extensive rail networks in Europe – 28,000 kilometres of tracks, including 2,800 kilometres of high-speed lines.

“France is among the most accessible countries for rail tourism,” Diquattro says.

Cities with as few as 20,000 people have train stations, she explains. Thanks to its high-speed rail, you can get from Paris to Marseille in three hours.

That kind of access reshapes tourism patterns. It also reshapes policy.

In 2023, France formally banned domestic flights on some routes that could be done in under two and a half hours by train. Although its impact on the climate is unclear, the move has nevertheless boosted train travel and likely encouraged trips to regions that may have gone overlooked.

Tourists are dispersed by design

Where Spain has the Costa Brava and Italy has Venice, France has… everything. And that’s exactly how the country likes it.

“Tourists are spread out in France,” says Marine Prat, a travel and business events designer at Loire Secrets. “They don’t go to only one place. They travel to several regions.”

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Part of this comes down to history – France has always marketed itself as a country of regions. Part of it is storytelling. From the châteaux of the Loire to the wine cellars of Alsace, each region offers its own brand of tourism and the infrastructure to match.

“More and more people want to travel off the beaten track. They want to see different areas – not just the classics, like Paris and Normandy and the south of France,” Prat adds. “Now they can see on Instagram that you can go an hour and a half from Paris and easily discover charming villages, gastronomy and very dynamic cities.”

A cultural advantage

Perhaps less obvious, France’s legacy of hosting outsiders could be paying dividends today.

“France has been a crossroads of cultures for centuries,” says Prat. “It’s quite normal to have people from all over visit [France]… It’s a big part of our economy.”

That long history of hosting, combined with a strong tourism infrastructure, has likely helped insulate France from some of the issues seen elsewhere.

And the audience is growing. As Prat points out, arrivals from new markets like India, Southeast Asia, Australia and Africa have ticked upward in recent years. They’re finding more to do outside of the big cities and gravitating toward them, too.

“We’re trying to sell more local experiences,” she says. “We are very involved in our region. We want to promote more organic or biodynamic winemakers, more local and organic food, and people who work in this way.”

Diquattro says her company’s data backs that up.

“Travellers frequently choose Paris as their initial destination.” But from there, she says, they’re branching out, adding that Marseille and Strasbourg are growing fast, thanks to better connections and more to experience when travellers get there.

Can regulation fend off retaliation?

France hasn’t escaped friction. Frequent strikes – rail, air or otherwise – remain part of the national rhythm. Crowding and gentrification could be looming issues, too.

Meanwhile, the Olympic Games last year brought so much attention to the City of Lights that more than 50 million people visited it in 2024 alone.

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Earlier this summer, residents in Montmartre began sounding the alarm over surging crowds. “People come for three hours, have fun, buy a beret or a crepe, and leave, as if they were in an amusement park,” one resident told Reuters.

The authorities hope that regulation could help stave off the worst.

While short-term holiday lets have triggered housing crises in cities like Lisbon and Barcelona, authorities have been quicker to act in France.

Under a law passed last year – Loi le Meur – local governments can cap holiday rentals, slash the number of nights residences can be rented (from 120 to 90) and fine landlords who ignore the rules.

Whether it’s laws regulating short-term rentals or a masterplan for a more sustainable kind of growth, France’s system seems to be holding. In the age of overtourism, the country’s secret weapon might be that it has planned for this moment all along.