PARIS - One of the world's most visited cities but
also famous for its rudeness, Paris has embarked on a campaign to
improve its reputation and better cater to the needs of
tourists.
Waiters, taxi drivers and sales staff in the French capital all too
often come off as impolite, unhelpful and unable to speak foreign
languages say local tourism chiefs, who are handing out a manual
with guidelines on better etiquette.
A six-page booklet entitled "Do you speak Touriste?" contains
greetings in eight languages including German, Chinese and
Portuguese and advice on the spending habits and cultural codes of
different nationalities.
"The British like to be called by their first names," the guide
explains, while Italians should be shaken by the hand and Americans
reassured on prices.
Of the Chinese, the fastest-growing category of tourists visiting
the City of Light, the guide says they are "fervent shoppers" and
that "a simple smile and hello in their language will fully satisfy
them."
France is the world's top destination for foreign tourists, with
Paris visited by 29 million people last year. The business tourists
bring to hotels, restaurants and museums accounts for one in 10
jobs in the region and is a welcome boost to the economy at a time
of depressed domestic consumption.
The Paris chamber of commerce and the regional tourism committee
have warned, however, that growing competition from friendlier
cities like London meant Paris needed to work harder to attract
visitors, especially from emerging market countries.
Some 30,000 copies of the handbook on friendly service is being
distributed to taxi drivers, waiters, hotel managers and sales
people in tourist areas from the banks of the Seine river up to
Montmartre and in nearby Versailles and Fontainebleau.
Setting realistic linguistic ambitions, it suggests offering to
speak English to Brazilians - who it describes as warm and readily
tactile and keen on evening excursions - by telling them: "Nào falo
Português mas posso informar Inglês."
