PICTURES

Paris ramps up tourist security amid Chinese concerns

French Police Officers stand guard at the Louvre Museum during a visit of French Interior Minister Manuel Valls, unseen, in Paris on Friday, Aug 2, 2013 during a tour focused on security at the city's top tourist areas. -- PHOTO: AP
French Police Officers stand guard at the Louvre Museum during a visit of French Interior Minister Manuel Valls, unseen, in Paris on Friday, Aug 2, 2013 during a tour focused on security at the city's top tourist areas. -- PHOTO: AP
Tourists take picture of the Eiffel Tower, on Trocadero Square, on May 14, 2013 in Paris. -- PHOTO: AFP
Tourists rest at a wading pool near the Louvre museum on July 7, 2013 in Paris .-- PHOTO: AFP
Asian tourists pose by a sculpture by Aristide Maillol in the Tulieries Gardens in Paris on July 18, 2013. -- PHOTO: AFP
An Asian couple posed with their wedding in front of the Eiffel Tower on July 27, 2013 in Paris. -- PHOTO: AFP
French Interior Minister Manuel Valls (centre) and Junior Minister of Crafts, Business and Tourism Sylvia Pinel (third, right) are surrounded by journalists as they walk with a police woman outside the Louvre museum in Paris on Aug 2, 2013 during a tour focused on security at the city's top tourist areas. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
French Interior Minister Manuel Valls (centre) and Junior Minister of Crafts, Business and Tourism Sylvia Pinel (second, right) speak with French CRS police surrounded by journalists outside the Louvre museum in Paris on Aug 2, 2013 during a tour focused on security at the city's top tourist areas. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
 French Interior Minister Manuel Valls (right) gestures as he walks surrounded by journalists next to the Eiffel Tower in Paris on Aug 2, 2013 during a tour focused on security at the city's top tourist areas. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
French Interior Minister Manuel Valls (second, left) speaks with French police as he walks with Junior Minister of Crafts, Business and Tourism Sylvia Pinel (centre) next to the Eiffel Tower in Paris on Aug 2, 2013 during a tour focused on security at the city's top tourist areas. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
French Interior Minister Manuel Valls (second, left) and Junior Minister of Crafts, Business and Tourism Sylvia Pinel (centre) speaks with French soldiers patrolling near the Eiffel Tower in Paris on Aug 2, 2013 during a tour focused on security at the city's top tourist areas. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
French Interior Minister Manuel Valls (second, right) and French Junior Minister for Handicraft, Tourism and Trade Sylvia Pinel (right) verify security measures taken to protect tourists around the Eiffel Tower area on Aug 2, 2013 in Paris.  -- PHOTO: AFP
French Interior Minister Manuel Valls (second, left) and French Junior Minister for Handicraft, Tourism and Trade Sylvia Pinel (fourth, left) verify security measures taken to protect tourists around the Louvre Museum area on Aug 2, 2013 in Paris. -- PHOTO: AFP
French Interior Minister Manuel Valls (centre) and French Junior Minister for Handicraft, Tourism and Trade Sylvia Pinel (unseen) verify security measures taken to protect tourists around the Eiffel Tower area on Aug 2, 2013 in Paris. -- PHOTO: AFP
French Interior Minister Manuel Valls (second, right) and French Junior Minister for Handicraft, Tourism and Trade Sylvia Pinel (right) verify security measures taken to protect tourists around the Eiffel Tower area on Aug 2, 2013 in Paris. -- PHOTO: AFP

PARIS (REUTERS) - France said on Friday it would work harder to safeguard tourists in Paris after a spate of muggings of Asian visitors made such headlines in China that the Chinese embassy demanded action.

Interior and Tourism Ministers Manuel Valls and Sylvia Pinel said on a tour of the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower that 200 police had been put on patrol to protect tourists and steps were being taken to help foreigners prevent and report crime.

France is the world's most-visited country and solid tourism revenues are a bright spot in its depressed economy.

But reports of pickpockets and muggers targeting Chinese tourists have soared of late, tarnishing the French capital's image as a favoured destination for love-struck couples and high-end shoppers.

"Paris is a safe city. What we want to say today is: tourists and friends from all over the world, come to Paris, welcome to Paris, bienvenido a Paris!" Mr Valls told journalists.

Petty crimes against Chinese nationals jumped 22 per cent in the first quarter from a year earlier, a Paris police official told Reuters. He said Asian tourists were targeted because they were known to carry a lot of cash on them.

Staff at the Louvre went on strike in April over a surge in pickpockets, shutting the world's most-visited museum for a day.

Security guards say Chinese tourists visiting France for the first time seem to get more easily distracted than more seasoned European tourists when gazing at works like the Mona Lisa.

Police recently issued a "Guide to staying safe in Paris" - translated into Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Spanish - advising tourists to carry a minimum of cash, favour small banknotes and watch out for gangs of teenagers, commonly from eastern Europe, who pick pockets while conducting phoney petitions.

At the Louvre, tourists can now file legal complaints directly on site in 16 languages without going to the police.

Some 1.4 million Chinese visited France last year, up 23 per cent from 2011. Millionaires in China rate it their top destination.

But a group of 75 French luxury brands including Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Dior and Hermes warned in May that Chinese buyers, the world's top spenders, risk favouring London or Milan as they view Paris as dangerous.

In March, a group of 23 Chinese were robbed within hours of landing in Paris.

In June, six Chinese wine-making students were assaulted in Bordeaux in an attack Mr Valls called "xenophobic".

The Chinese embassy has pressed French authorities in recent months to address the issue, which was also raised when Socialist President Francois Hollande last travelled to China in April to meet his counterpart Xi Jinping.

Mr Jean-Francois Zhou, head of Ansel travel agency which runs tours to and from China, said he advised clients not to take the metro or leave their hotel at night. His tour guides pepper their talk with warnings like "pickpockets to your right".

"It's a killjoy," he said. "These visitors have big dreams about Paris but things like this smash their illusions."

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