Paris:- Friday, 15. November 1996:- As a close observer of the Paris visitor scene for the past 20 months - I'm not counting my 20 years' residence here - I am coming to some conclusions. I do not know whether these are shared by the establishment and I may be completely wrong.

Another possibility is that I am making correct assessments, which agree with those of the establishment, or are totally at odds with establishment thinking. Time will tell.

The decision by the Disney organization to select Paris as its European location triggered the idea - to me - that Paris, as it sheds all vestiges of 'hard' industry, is moving towards 'soft' industry: the industry of services, and specifically the industry of tourism. In other words, the arrival of the Disney Theme park was merely coincidental to the direction Paris was already taking - its reincarnation as the biggest and most successful theme park in the world.

As pejorative as this may sound - The Paris-Theme Park - its arrival is a reality, if not by this actual name. It is a fact - dictated by world economics, its own history, its location and its own particular singularity. Aquaboulevard in the 15th arrondissement is not about to be replaced by the Citroen car factory that used to be situated at this location. It is gone forever.

Visitors have been coming to Paris for 2000 years.Today's visitors are not some new phenomenon - something to be deplored; spoilers of the landscape, pillagers of treasure - the contrary is true.

Visitors are extremely valuable customers - they bring hard money to the city. The city in return provides infrastructure - much of which it has to provide in any case for residents - and 'attractions,' which also are for the use and amusement of residents.

Considered this way, the amounts that Paris invests in itself return a bonus payback, especially if you consider the amount of employment directly generated to provide service to visitors.

An important new factor emerged last summer: for the first time concern was raised about the quality of the environment. Residents began to demand the return of the use of their own streets - the bicycle lanes - and concurrently demanded decent air to breathe. The battle against the dictatorship of the automobile in the city has begun - and the benefits for residents will also benefit visitors.

The part I do not know is the exact role of the 'management.' Is it leading or is it following? Does it know, that besides managing the general administration of Paris, is it also responsible for the function of the enterprise - of this theme park?

To give some idea of the magnitude of this organization that is known world-wide by the simple name of 'Paris,' here are some figures assembled by the official Observatoire Régional du Toursime d'Ile de France, from an extract of a report about activity in 1995.

The Ile-de-France region received 35 million visitors. The resident population of the Ile-de-France is about 11 million.

Of all visitors, over 4.1 million of these were French and they made more than 7.7 million overnight hotel stays. The French, on professional visits, spent an average of 860 francs a day; visitors for pleasure spent considerably less as up to 70 percent of them stayed with friends or family.

The residents of the Ile-de-France itself are also occasional visitors. 'Occasional' in the sense that residents also make visits within the region for pleasure - go to the same expositions, museums and attractions as visitors from further away. The number of their entries to attractions is counted, but the exact number is indistinguishable from those of other visitors.

Foreigners made just over 17 million overnight stays in hotels in 1995; down about 10 percent from a year earlier.

By origin, Americans lead with 2.6 million overnights, followed by the Japanese with nearly 1.8 million and the Germans with just under 1.5 million. The Swiss lead with spending by paying out an average of 1750 francs per day (about US$350), with the Japanese second at 1532 francs, the Americans third with 1395 francs and the Germans, Italians, Belgians, and Luxembourgers tied for fourth place with about 1050 francs spent per day. The average daily budget for all foreign visitors was 1126 francs (about US$222).

The hotels reported lengths of stay and the Italians stayed longest with an average of 2.66 days, then the Swiss with 2.42 days and the Spanish were third with 2.39 days, with the Americans close behind.

Whether it is numbers of visitors, or overnight stays, or entries to museums and monuments; all totals for 1995 are about 10 percent below those for 1994, and the trend seems to be continuing for 1996. There are probably several reasons for this - beyond the extraordinary events that occurred in 1995 - but I do not know what they may be.

However you look at it, the absolute numbers are still impressive. A new score-report, for the entire year of 1996, will be available early in 1997, and I will probably report on this again. What you have here today, is a tiny extract, and I have already thought of some new questions to ask next time around.

For example, by simply multiplying the number of visitors staying in reporting hotels, by the average daily outlay, it gives the figure of US$2.575.200.000 and if I multiply this by the average length of stay... but I will wait for next year's full report because somebody may have this figured out for me.