Oui? (Picture: KENZO TRIBOUILLARD/AFP/Getty Images)

French people, stop being so moody and unwelcoming.

That’s the call of French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who has urged the Gallic people to stop living up to their international reputation for unfriendliness.

Paris, for example, has been named one of the world’s most hostile places for foreign visitors in a number of international surveys.

And speaking at the launch of a new scheme designed to boost tourist levels, Mr Fabius said: ‘Tourism is a national treasure that needs to be protected, nurtured and developed – that’s the aim of all these measures.


But he then went on to encourage French people to be more welcoming to tourists.



‘To put it diplomatically, we have room for improvement here. When we come up against a foreign tourist, we are all ambassadors for France’ he said.

He made the comments at the unveiling of a new Tourism Investment Fund, which hopes to boost French tourist levels to 100 million by 2020.

The campaign also aims to increase the spending habits of visitors, with tourist revenues hitting 47.1 billion euros in 2013, compared to the 130.4 billion dollars from visitors to the United States.

And in an attempt to lure in more visitors, Mr Fabius also called on French TV channels to broadcast the Tour de France and create documentaries that promote different regions of the country.