Paris 24 Aug (ANA) - One million fewer visitors went to the French capital in the first six months of 2016 compared to the year before, sparked by terror and safety fears, as well as claims the chic city is dirty and blighted by striking workers. The 6.4 per cent drop has cost £644million (€750m) in lost revenue in just half a year. Frederic Valletoux, head of the Paris region tourist board said: “It is time to realise that the tourism sector is going through an industrial crisis.” According to tourist board figures, nightly hotel stays in the Paris region were down 8.5 per cent in in the first half of 2016, with an 11.5 per cent decline in foreign tourists and a 4.8 per cent decline in French tourists. The Paris region tourist board also said there had been a 46.2 per cent decline in Japanese visitors, a 35 per cent decline in Russian visitors, a 19.6 per cent decline in Chinese visitors, and a 5.7 per cent decline in visitors from the US.  About 500,000 people in the Ile-de-France region, which includes Paris, work in the tourism industry, the biggest employer in the area.  The recent wave of terrorist attacks on French soil, the strikes over labour reforms, and the recent floods are believed to be behind this sudden drop.  But according to Valerie Pecresse, president of the Ile-de-France region, the tourism industry cannot blame everything on Islamic terrorism and on the bad weather.  The most wanted IS memember Salah Abdeslam has been wounded in a counter terrorism raid in Brussels, said to be linked to last year's Paris attacks, in which 130 people died.(ANA)

FA/ANA/23 August 2016---------