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France Ian Sparks reports from Paris on attempts to attract wary tourists and to make sure girls aren’t too thin. Will that work?
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he French tourist industry has launched a major drive to lure visitors back to Paris after hotel occupancy dropped by ten per cent in the wake of the city’s terrorist attacks in January. Hotels welcomed ten per cent fewer guests on year-to-year-comparisons between the dates of January 8 to 18 following the massacre of staff at the Charlie Hebdo magazine and the siege at a Jewish supermarket by Islamic extremists, the hospitality research firm MKG Group reported. Since then, Paris has been on high security alert with armed troops deployed across the city protecting some of its most famous attractions, but the display of force appears to be deterring tourists who fear the city is still at risk of attack. On an average year, almost 85 million foreigners a year visit France to create a 150 billion euro tourist industry that delivers seven percent of the nation’s gross domestic product, French government figures show. With tourism such a critical part of the French economy and 550,000 jobs linked to tourism in the Paris region alone, Le Comité Régional du Tourisme Paris Ile-de-France, Paris’ regional tourism committee, is sending out advisories that the monuments, museums, malls, and other attractions in Paris are protected. The committee’s managing director, François Navarro, said that the committee will also embark on a world tour to reassure tourists and travel agents that Paris is safe and open for business. Like the Paris committee, the European tourism industry is also working on ways to protect and strengthen its tourism market with airlines, hotels, tourist boards and tourist attractions working collectively to come up with marketing strategies to help the industry through one of the most challenging periods in its history.
Georges Panayotis, president of the MKG research group said: “The political and security environment is a key factor for international tourism. The curve is heading downwards since the attacks against France. It’s a new phenomenon that may add to security fears weighing on bookings.” Europe’s largest hotel group, Accor, which operates hotels ranging from luxury Sofitel to budget Ibis, said in January that it remained cautious on the French market this year – also in view of the constrained economic climate. Chief financial officer Sophie Stabile said: “We have not seen massive cancellations at Paris hotels but we remain watchful of any development.”
Body laws The French government is meanwhile drafting a new law that could have major repercussions for another of the country’s most profitable industries – by banning ultra-skinny models from fashion advertising and the catwalk. The new bill currently being drafted would outlaw ‘inciting extreme thinness’ and is aimed specifically at closing down websites that advise anorexics on how to starve, but industry experts believe it will also have a significant impact on the use of female models in fashion and the media. The proposed law will state that it is illegal to ‘provoke a person to seek excessive weight loss by encouraging prolonged nutritional deprivation that could lead to health risks or death’. Offenders would face fines of up to 50,000 euros and three-year prison sentences, the bill states. Fashion industry experts said that, if passed, the law would be the strongest of its kind anywhere and could ‘transform the fashion industry worldwide’. Didier Grumbach, president of the influential French Federation of Couture, strongly disapproved of legislating body weight. He said: “Never will we accept in our profession
that a judge decides if a young girl is skinny or not skinny. That doesn’t exist in the world, and it will certainly not exist in France.” But Juliette Menager, casting director for Joule Studio in Paris, said clearer guidelines on model weight could be a good thing, adding: “There is definitely an enormous problem. Some models lose so much weight for the fashion shows that it can be really scary, like a concentration camp.” The bill’s author, right-wing MP Valery Boyer, said she wanted to encourage discussion about women’s health and body image. She added: “The proposed legislation would enable a judge to sanction those responsible for a magazine photo of a model whose thinness altered her health.” French health minister Roselyne Bachelot who backs the law said websites that encourage young girls to starve should not be protected by freedom of expression. The bill comes after countries including Spain, Italy and Brazil have all clamped down on skinny models at catwalk shows. Spain has barred models below a certain body mass index from the Madrid fashion shows. Italy has insisted on health certificates for fashion show participants. And Brazil is considering demands to ban underage, underweight models from its catwalks. Medical experts around the world have warned against the dangers of ultra-skinny catwalk models, and images airbrushed to make girls look thinner, which they say encourage anorexia in girls as young as six. Fashion guru Giorgio Armani said recently that the fashion industry had a duty to “work together against anorexia.” He added: “The industry has to recognise the link between its preference for abnormally thin models and the growth in eating disorders among young women.” France’s proposed law goes before the upper house of parliament, the Senate, for n approval next week. Industry Europe 25
