France has never welcomed so many international tourists. This record number of visitors is generally seen as good news for the country's economy and appeal. But Behind these figures lies a much more mixed reality : Tourists from far away account for only a small portion of visitors, yet they have a very significant impact on the sector's carbon footprint.
That is the main focus of the new report by the Climate Action Network (CAN), Are there too many tourists in France?, published on September 8, 2026. In 70 pages, the organization examines the French tourism model and asks a simple question: Why try to attract more and more tourists from far away, when the economic benefits are concentrated in just a few areas and their visits have a particularly heavy impact on the climate?
"The tourism and aviation sectors feed off each other when it comes to global warming: two-thirds of flights in France are now for tourism purposes, and more than 40% of tourism-related emissions are caused by… air travel. So the more international tourism we have, the more greenhouse gases we produce, with the consequences that France experienced this summer: massive wildfires, droughts, heat waves…", explains Alexis Chailloux, transportation director at Climate Action Network. Here’s a closer look at the report’s key findings.
Who really drives tourism in France? French residents come first (€135 billion spent in France), followed by Europeans (€54 billion). Non-European tourists account for only €24 billion.
Who pollutes the most? Non-European tourists account for 3% of all tourists visiting France, but 20% of the tourism sector’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Why are the French taking fewer vacations in France? The shift toward higher-end tourist accommodations has caused prices to rise twice as fast as inflation over the past 20 years, driving some French people to choose less expensive foreign destinations.
What solution can rail transportation offer? The Climate Action Network is proposing to revive the "annual vacation ticket": a round-trip train ticket for €49 per person, once a year.
Contrary to popular belief, it is not tourists from far away who drive the French tourism economy. In 2023, French residents spent 135 billion euros on vacations within France, accounting for two-thirds of domestic tourism spending (211 billion euros, according to INSEE). Yet France is aiming for 100 billion euros in revenue from international tourists by 2030, without a corresponding target for French tourists, and without distinguishing between European tourists (who have a low carbon footprint) and tourists from far away (who have a high carbon footprint).
Next come European tourists, who spent 54 billion euros in France in 2025. Tourists from the rest of the world, on the other hand, accounted for only 24 billion euros.
The imbalance is even more pronounced when viewed in terms of the trade balance (that is, the difference between what foreigners spend in France and what the French spend abroad). Of the 20 billion euros in the international tourism surplus, 90 % come from European tourists, particularly those from five neighboring countries (Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland).
Between 2019 and 2025, Europe’s tourism balance more than doubled (from 8 to 18.1 billion euros), while that of the rest of the world remained flat (from 3.6 to 1.9 billion). Source: Banque de France, cited by Climate Action Network.
In other words, the gap is widening rather than narrowing: of the 5.9 billion euros increase in the tourism balance between 2019 and 2025, 88% comes from trade with Europe, compared with only 12% from the rest of the world.
However, this money must actually benefit the region. To be fair, it should be noted that when looking at spending per tourist (rather than overall), visitors from far away (Americans, Japanese, Brazilians) spend more individually than European tourists. On the other hand, while Americans do indeed spend more than the Dutch, “"They also pollute a lot more"," Alexis Chailloux adds.
Furthermore, this money is distributed unevenly across the region. In France, large companies (more than 250 employees) account for 34% of revenue from tourist accommodations, compared with only 12% in Italy (Transport & Environment, NEF, 2026). A study of the Spanish cities of Valencia and Benidorm shows that the “economic leakage” rate (the portion of tourist spending that does not remain in the local economy) reaches 38.8% in areas with a high concentration of foreign tourists, compared to 11.9% in areas more focused on domestic tourism. "There appears to be a higher rate of economic leakage among large hotel chains, such as Accor, than among small, independent tourist accommodations. However, the data is incomplete, and we would like to see more robust studies on this specific topic."," says Alexis Chailloux.
Since 2019, the number of budget hotel rooms (1- and 2-star) has fallen by 15 %, while the high-end segment (4- and 5-star hotels) grew by 22 % (Atout France, 2026). This move toward higher-end offerings, designed to attract an international clientele, has a direct impact on prices: according to economist Gilles Caire, the price of tourist accommodations has risen nearly twice as fast as inflation over the past 20 years, with an even sharper spike in the middle of August.
As a result, some French people are opting for shorter trips or are even going abroad: overnight stays by French residents for tourism purposes have fallen by 13 % between 2018 and 2025, while we are seeing success destinations such as Spain, Italy, or Portugal, served by a vast array of low-cost airlines. A trend that raises questions: the increase in tourism revenue says nothing about the region’s accessibility to its own population.
Over the past 35 years, prices for tourist accommodations have increased by a factor of 2.9 on average annually, and by a factor of 3.6 in August. Source: Gilles Caire, based on INSEE data, as cited by the Climate Action Network
The report cites another statistic: 40% of French people do not go on vacation every year. "Today, two out of five French people still do not go on vacation every year, mainly for financial reasons. These disparities are particularly pronounced among children: half of the children in the lowest-income households do not go on vacation. Public policies have succeeded in the past at increasing the rate of vacation travel, but over the past 40 years, it is clear that progress has stalled.” ", summarizes Alexis Chailloux.
Article
Why traveling by train to Europe from France remains so complicated
This is undoubtedly the most striking figure in the report: Non-European tourists account for 3 % of tourists visiting France, but 20 % of greenhouse gas emissions from the tourism sector. The carbon footprint of a tourist from a distant country is, on average, 10 times greater than that of a French resident, and 5 times greater than that of a European tourist—a difference that is almost entirely due to the climate impact of long-haul flights.
3% of tourists visiting France, 20% of the tourism sector’s emissions. Source: ADEME, 2024, cited by the Climate Action Network.
Article
Can we decarbonize aviation without slowing down traffic?
In fact, the aviation sector is one of the few sectors in France where emissions continue to rise (Citepa, 2026). This increase was driven in particular by international flights: between 2019 and 2025, they gained 11 million passengers (+8%), while domestic traffic in France lost 7 million (-27%).
Article
Sustainable mobility: green aircraft, biofuel, electric... Aurélien Bigo untangles the true from the false
However, a large portion of these trips is directly related to tourism: About two out of every three passengers fly for tourism purposes. As early as 2018, air travel alone accounted for 41 % of tourism-related emissions in France. Given the increase in international travel since then, its share could be even higher today.
French airports send more tourists to the Mediterranean and Asia than they bring in. Source: DGAC, 2024 National Air Passenger Survey, cited by Climate Action Network.
On this map:
In fact, French airports send more French citizens abroad (62%) than they bring in international tourists (38%): an imbalance that is worsening (+4.1% in “outbound” traffic between 2024 and 2025, compared with +3% in “inbound” traffic). Yet this is the model favored by many regional airports, which are subsidized by local governments.
"Many local governments subsidize airports or low-cost airline routes, thinking they are making an investment. Not only is this disastrous for the climate, but even from an economic standpoint, it isn’t necessarily a good idea, since it risks increasing the number of French people who travel abroad—and who will therefore no longer spend their money locally.", notes Alexis Chailloux.
Long-distance tourism, in fact, benefits only a limited number of regions. The vast majority of tourists from far away are concentrated in the Île-de-France region and on the French Riviera : For example, 62% of overnight stays by U.S. tourists occur in the Paris region (INSEE, 2024). In contrast, European tourists, who tend to travel by car, are spread out more widely across the country.
This concentration has consequences for residents of the most popular destinations, particularly when it comes to housing. In areas with heavy tourist traffic, some properties are purchased or converted to be offered as short-term rentals, particularly on Airbnb. As a result, these units are removed from the traditional rental market, putting additional pressure on rents.
Our best train deals, straight to your inbox
According to the Directorate General for Enterprises, Each additional unit of density of “professional” Airbnb listings (hosts offering at least two properties and/or more than 120 booking days per year) is thus associated with a rent increase of approximately 1.2 %. This trend is driven in particular by foreign customers, who account for 43.3 % of its overnight stays are in vacation rentals, compared with 35.5% for French residents.
Why does France continue to pursue this strategy, despite its unintended consequences? "We'd have to ask the government, but I can think of three possible explanations: 1) because tourists from far away spend more on average (though we'd need to look at where that money goes and how to quantify its economic contribution to global warming), 2) because we tend to think that the farther we reach, the more influence we have (whereas a tourism policy should instead be judged by its ability to preserve the planet’s livability), and 3) because we simply don’t have the right metrics: we only look at economic benefits (not the stimulation of the local economy, nor the preservation of the quality of life, nor the ecological cost).”, explains Alexis Chailloux.
The report's main recommendation boils down to one idea: Rather than trying to attract ever more tourists from far away, France would be better off focusing more on French and European visitors. This shift in focus has already taken place, despite ourselves, during the pandemic: between 2018 and 2022, emissions from tourism decreased by 16 %, without any decline in the sector's economic activity.
The Climate Action Network also proposes to curb the growth of air traffic, notably by a moratorium on airport expansions and an end to tax exemptions on jet fuel.
He also calls for more transparency regarding budgets allocated to tourism promotion and proposes four criteria for evaluate public policies in the sector : their carbon footprint, their local economic impact, their effects on the living environment, and the accessibility of vacations.
Article
Airplanes: Why Do Some People Fly Their Whole Lives (and Others Never Do)?
Among the measures proposed is this one (which we can only support at HOORAY!): Bringing the annual leave voucher back into fashion. Created by Léo Lagrange, Under Secretary of State for Leisure in the Popular Front government, in the wake of the first paid vacations, the program still exists in 2026, but it has lost some of its luster.
The discount, originally set at 40%, is now only 25%, available only on SNCF trains and contingent on a paper form signed by the employer. As a result: a round-trip ticket from Paris to Marseille costs €185 during peak periods (often more expensive than tickets available elsewhere), and the program remains largely unknown: only 24,000 people took advantage of it in 2025.
Article
Why is air travel cheaper than rail (and can the trend be reversed)?
Climate Action Network proposes taking it to a whole new level: a round-trip train ticket for 49 € per person per year, available to all French residents. He also wants to see the return of a pass rail less than 50 € per month, valid all year round and providing unlimited access to TER and Intercités trains. Such a measure would cost approximately 2 billion euros, which the association proposes to fund by ending tax exemptions for the airline industry.
Article
10 ways to make trains more efficient and attractive in France
Behind the goal of attracting ever more international visitors, the Climate Action Network report ultimately raises a fairly simple question: Should we really be trying to attract more and more tourists from farther and farther away?
The RAC advocates a different model: a form of tourism that is more focused on French travelers and our European neighbors, more evenly distributed across the country, and less reliant on air travel. In short, a model in which the train inevitably has an important role to play.
To read the full report from Climate Action Network, It's here.
Issue du monde de la communication et des médias, Sophie est Responsable éditoriale chez HOURRAIL ! depuis août 2024. Elle est notamment derrière le contenu éditorial du site ainsi que La Locomissive (de l'inspiration voyage bas carbone et des bons plans, un jeudi sur deux, gratuitement dans ta boîte mail !).
Convaincue que les changements d’habitude passent par la transformation de nos imaginaires, elle s’attache à montrer qu’il est possible de voyager autrement, de manière plus consciente, plus lente et plus joyeuse. Son objectif : rendre le slow travel accessible à toutes et tous, à travers des astuces, des décryptages et surtout, de nouveaux récits.
