France, like Belgium, Great Britain and Italy, are all struggling with the threat of terrorism and with all the security measures and problems this entails. Nevertheless, American tourists still like the Old Continent, according to the eighth survey on European Tourism.
American tourists planning a summer holiday were asked in the study organised by Travel Leaders Group, the American tour operator. The findings show that the respondents preferred France as the destination of choice, followed by Italy, United Kingdom, Germany and Spain. However, the fear of terrorism is one of the first five reasons stated by the study participants who decided not to go for holiday in Europe this summer.
Fear Cannot Stop the Travellers

The results of the survey indicate that a lot of American tourists do not want to let fear and the security situation in their destination of choice overpower their desire of embracing the world and experiencing other cultures.
France is the main example, as Ninan Chacko, CEO of the Travel Leaders Group, explained. “Of course, every single traveler has to choose his or her personal comfort level, whatever the destination is, even inside the US. The survey data show that a lot of Americans still choose Europe, and in particular France, which has been their favourite destination for a long time. Traveling itself seems to be the most powerful catalyst for facing ignorance, fear and hate, as our interviewees confirm,” said Chacko.
Italy Is the Second Favourite Destination
Out of all the 3400 respondents of the survey, 8.2% confirmed that they have already traveled around Europe this year and that they visited, in order, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands. When asked whether they still intend to realise their traveling plans, 98.3% answered positively.
Almost 28% of the participants plan a European trip in 2016 while United Kingdom, Italy, France, Germany and Ireland are among their most contemplated destinations.
Among the respondents who stated that they have no plans to travel to Europe until the end of the year, 48.5% has already taken or planned the main holiday, 31.2% decided so because of the costs, 25.5% were worried about the security, 16.4% were not interested in Europe, and 6.3% had no time for traveling.
The survey among American tourists also took into account the effects of the latest terrorist events, and included a question whether there are any European countries that the respondents intend to avoid this year. The results show that 37.5% answered no to this question, 26.6% said “No, we can’t let fear influence our trips”, 21% intended to avoid Turkey, 14.4% Belgium, and 14.3% Russia.

Source: Tourism Review