After attacks, Paris seeks to reassure Chinese tourism

A delegation representing China's top 50 travel agencies began a three-day visit to France on Tuesday aimed at calming their security concerns following the November attacks in Paris.

Among the delegation were representatives from around a dozen corporate travel agencies, the Paris regional tourism authority CRT said in a statement.

Visa applications have dropped off considerably this year because of Chinese jitters over security, it said.

Arrivals from China had surged an unprecedented 49 percent in 2015, with 1.2 million arrivals to the Paris region, topping one million visitors for the first time -- "but the attacks of last November slowed this growth," CRT said.

A total of 130 people were killed and more than 350 were injured in the attacks that were claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group as revenge for French air strikes on jihadists in Iraq and Syria.

France is the top European destination for Chinese visitors, who are among the biggest spenders, although they make up only two percent of foreign visitors.