This is why we invested in Paris!

The Office du Tourisme de Paris just published its statistics for 2009 (better late than never) which you might find interesting. They define the tourist as someone outside of his normal environment who spends more than one night and less than one year (this I find funny considering the visa waiver program is 90 days).
Not surprising is that France is the most visited country with a recorded 76.8 million visitors in 2009, and second to that was the U.S. with 54.9 million visitors. Americans spent the most amount of money, too, with expenditures of $93.9 billion -- $1,710 per visitor!
Of the 76.8 million visitors, 35.3 million (46%) stayed less than four nights with 19.2 million (24.5%) staying eight nights or more. The British make up the largest percentage of visitors with 15.9%, followed by the Belgians (14.2%) and the Germans (13.9%). We Americans only make up 4% and Canadians only 1.1%. (We may be few, but we make a big impact!)
Of the 961.9 million nights spent in France as a tourist, only 5.8% spend those nights in hotels and 15.5% in rented accommodations. The rest either camp (8.5%, can you believe that?) or stay with a friend or family or in a secondary home.
To learn more, download the pdf report at tourisme.gouv.fr/

Julie