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Bonjour’ Américain

France May Resort to ‘Un-French’ Ways to Lure More American Tourists

By Bob Jamieson

It is a simple request: smile more. But it is at the heart of a wide-ranging
campaign by French officials to win back American tourists and their dollars so
important to France's economy. Recent posters on display in Paris depict Mona
Lisa, one of the Louvre's most famous possessions, with a small alteration: her
mysterious smile is underlined by another, much like the "smiley face"
ubiquitous in America.

Tourism officials in Paris are hopeful that 6,000 such renderings promoting the
"Bonjour Campaign" will encourage hotel clerks, waiters, bus drivers and metro
employees to be nicer and more helpful to tourists.

Its key missive: to smile more.

The French are convinced that the U.S. perception that they — particularly
Parisians — are unfriendly to Americans has added to the tourism decline caused
by France's position on the war with Iraq.

French Position Misunderstood?

On a beautiful June day in Paris, as a cloudless blue sky looks down on familiar
tourist attractions, it is clear something is different. At the Eiffel Tower,
along the Champs Elysees and at the Cathedral of Notre Dame, there are Japanese,
German and British tourists — but few Americans.

"I think they're staying at home," a young Frenchman, Rene Eskengren, said.
"Don't you think so?"

It would appear so: so far this year there are 25 percent fewer Americans
visiting France than a year ago. And a recent study for a large travel agency
found that France had slipped from the No. 2 destination for American travelers
to No. 17. The reason cited is mainly France's position on Iraq.

It has been a rude awakening for French officials.

"I think they're shocked," said Adam Gopnik, who reported for six years from
Paris for The New Yorker magazine. Gopnik said the French believe their position
on Iraq was one of principle, and was not driven by anti-Americanism or
resentment of the United States.

The French are not only shocked, but hurt, he told ABCNEWS. "There's also this
feeling of rejection, of being misunderstood and being maligned unfairly.

"If you're gonna hate France, hate Canada because Canada and France shared
exactly the same policy on this particular issue."

Campaign Emphasizes Face Value

The French have mounted a major campaign to repair the damage done by the war in
Iraq. Its tourist board officials just concluded a monthlong barnstorming tour
of 15 U.S. cities. They're focusing strongly on that smile.

Americans have traditionally been the largest group of foreigners to visit
France each year. Only Japanese visitors spend more money per person there.
Since 2000, the number of U.S. visitors has been declining steadily: from 3.5
million in 2000, to 3 million Americans in 2001 and down to 2.7 million last
year.

At a sidewalk café, Inna Wahl, a young, blonde woman in dark glasses,
acknowledged that even Parisians know there's something to this smile business.
"People say that maybe because of the French attitude that the Americans are not
really keen about going to Paris, which I can understand."

Thierry Baudier, head of the French tourist board, Maiseon de la France ,
referred to a study three years ago which showed that in the rest of the world,
the French were considered arrogant. The campaign, he said, will "show the rest
of the world and the tourist that the French people are friendly, warm and that
we are engaged to welcome them."

At Citadine's Hotel, a familiar place on the American tourist path in Paris,
manager Francois Montbellet has embraced the "Bonjour Campaign" and signed a
contract promising to be more welcoming to tourists. A clerk at the reception
desk welcomes a pair of arriving American backpackers with a clearly forced
smile, but a smile nevertheless.

"They have to know that the French people like Americans and so it's good for
this," said Montbellet.

But will everyone in Paris start smiling more and replace the traditional Gallic
shrug with a welcoming embrace and even a few words in English?

"I've never heard about this 'Bonjour' program," said Frenchman Eskengren. He
doubts it will have much impact. "French people are very chauvinist, very proud.
And when you come to France, you speak French."

Near the Champs Elysees, Jean-Luc Margot-Duclot, a tour bus operator, wonders
about the "Bonjour Campaign" and the clash of French and American cultures.
Sitting on the upper deck of an empty bus, he says, "It's not in our culture. I
know that in the states you learn to smile when you're very young. It's not
something we have in France."

Gopnik has watched in Paris as the two cultures have clashed and says history
indicates this campaign faces an uphill struggle with the French. "They can't
get over the smiley-ness of Americans. Americans smile at you when they're
putting you in handcuffs when they take you off to prison. They see our
smiley-ness as kind of false intimacy, a false warmth."

Margot-Duclot had some advice for Americans. "There's a very simple thing you
need to know. First, ask a French person if he speaks English before speaking to
him in English. That's something a French person really doesn't like."

Will the French smile if doing so will bring back the Americans? They might,
since this is not just a cultural issue, but also an economic one. The French
economy has already lost nearly $1 billion this year, money un-spent by
Americans in France.