Paris? cultural attractions are benefiting from a recovery in tourist numbers, welcoming 70.2 million visitors in 2017 representative of a 5.9% increase compared to the year before.
This performance is thanks to a strong growth in foreign visitors and illustrates the recovery in tourism in the capital, which also saw a record number of hotel arrivals in 2017.
The survey of cultural visitors, carried out each year by the Paris Convention and Visitors Bureau (PCVB), looks at data on visitor numbers to Paris? museums and monuments ? both permanent collections and exhibitions - over the past year. The survey of the year 2017 covers visitor numbers for 62 cultural attractions and 68 temporary exhibitions.
The cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris and the Sacr?-Coeur Basilica of Montmartre were the two most visited monuments in the capital with 12 million and ten million visitors respectively, in 2017. In third place was the Louvre Museum, which saw renewed growth with more than eight million visitors, up by 14.8% compared to 2016 (and remains the most visited museum in the world).
The Eiffel Tower, with 6.2 million visitors in 2017 (up 4.6%), crossed the symbolic mark of 300 million visitors since the World Fair of 1889. This successful rise in numbers has been attributed to two key elements; an attractive cultural programme and a favourable tourism climate.
Temporary exhibitions have played a key role in the annual variations in attendance with cultural attractions recording significant rises, like the Grand Palais (up 24.9%) thanks to the success of ?Gauguin, The Alchemist?; the Petit Palais (up 32.2%) with the exhibitions ?The Art of Pastel, from Degas to Redon?and ?Anders Zorn, Sweden?s Master Painter?; or the Fondation Fran?ois Sommer ? Mus?e de la Chasse et de la Nature (up 68.7 %) with ?Beau doubl?, Monsieur le Marquis?.
Some 10.2 million visits were recorded in 2017 for 68 temporary exhibitions at 25 Parisian cultural attractions; 19 of which recorded more than 200,000 visitors.
The exhibition ?Being Modern. MoMA in Paris?, at the Fondation Louis Vuitton, was found to be the most visited exhibition in Greater Paris with a total of 755,184 visitors in 2017.
