With opinion polls indicating that Chinese sentiment towards France has greatly deteriorated after the Paris Olympic torch pro-Tibet protests, it's not completely surprising that tourism from Beijing to France has fallen by 70 percent in the past few weeks. But suspicions have arisen that Beijing's official tourism body has taken measures to stop the city's potential travelers from patronizing France. "We were given the assurance that there had never been an order for tourism agencies to boycott France," French ambassador to China Herve Ladsous announced in a press briefing (quoted here in Reuters UK). The decrease in Chinese travelers can partly be explained by an official order discouraging overseas travel after the recent devastation in Sichuan and the upcoming excitement of the Olympics. Ladsous, however, has voiced doubts:
But there is more than that as France has been more directly touched and it is clear that the fall of two-thirds relates to Beijing, whereas in Shanghai, where the authorities did not give any instruction, the visas continued to be delivered at the same speed as before.
Meanwhile, as Paris mourns the loss of its Beijing patrons,
Los Angeles welcomes the first-ever leisure tour groups from China.
译文:
北京赴法游人数骤减
根据民意测验，自奥运圣火在巴黎传递遭藏独分子示威阻挠后，中国人民对法国的态度急剧降温，因而过去几周内从北京赴法国旅游的人数下降了70%之多也就不足为奇。但也有人怀疑是北京官方旅行机构采取了措施取消中国公民巴黎游。“中方向我们保证从没有向旅行社发出抵制法国的指令，”法国驻华大使Herve Ladsous在一次新闻发布会上简言道（引于路透社）。中国赴法国游客数量的锐减部分可能是四川大地震后中国政府对民众出境游的劝阻，部分因为迎接奥运激动心情战胜了出国的旅游热情。Ladsous称愿意相信中方的说法，但表示仍然难以理解。
北京赴法旅游人数下降了三分之二，但没接到任何官方指示的上海赴法的签证发放情况却与往年基本持平。
同时，当巴黎为失去如此之多的中国游客而遗憾时，洛杉机却迎来中国游客高峰。