A dip in arrivals from Britain, its biggest tourist market, has pushed Paris to re-think the way it packages itself and throw off some of the sniffy stereotypes it has been saddled with.
This week, the tourist board for the Paris region launched a new ad campaign aimed at Britons that, far from flaunting its well-known monuments and museums, seeks to portray the French capital as an energetic, youthful and trendy city.
The $1,3-million billboard and postcard campaign “is to show Londoners that Paris isn’t a stuffy museum city, but that it is a vibrant destination brimming with exiting events that are worth visiting regularly”, the board said in a statement.
The ads can be seen on a new website (www.cestsoparis.com), and include, for instance, a picture of the inside of the Versailles palace with partying young people letting loose in the MTV style of Sofia Coppola’s recent Marie Antoinette movie under the tag: “At Versailles, you’re treated like royalty.”
The site also features a page of actors in pantomime poses meant to convey common French gestures, such as the “Gallic shrug” or showing when someone is “fed up”.
At stake is a strategy to boost the number of British tourists, especially those from London. Britons already account for one in five visitors to Paris, but their flow dropped 0,9% last year, to 3,2-million people. — AFP