US tourists take France off menu

AMERICAN anger over the French stand against the war in Iraq has led them to boycott France in huge numbers.

The 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.

Csar 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 said to consider the French opposition to the Iraq war as anti-American. Many are said to be concerned they will not get a friendly reception in France.

The weakening of the dollar against the euro and the fear of terrorism has also driven the drop, experts say.

Paris, but also the Cte d’Azur and Normandy - the three regions most favoured by Americans - have all suffered.

Even luxury Paris hotels like the Hotel George V, off the Champs-Elyses, and the Plaza Athne, on the exclusive Avenue Montaigne, have felt the pinch.

The George V welcomed "between 12 and 20 per cent fewer Americans" said Didier Le Calvez, the hotel’s director.

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 Mre Poulard at Mont St Michel in Normandy reports losing 50 per cent of its US custom. The tourist office, which doubles as the bureau de change there, is reporting a severe shortage of dollars.