Chinese accounted for only about 2% of the 40 million tourists visiting France and its suburbs in 2017.

Pecresse, president of Île-de-France for the Republicans party, vowed to introduce measures to woo Chinese tourists – most of them digital: a full roll-out of mobile payment solutions Alipay and WeChat Pay, to ensure a “100% cashless journey by the end of 2018”; pocket Wi-fi solutions; and a partnership with Chinese retail giant Alibaba (owner of the South China Morning Post), to create a Paris region portal on its online travel platform, Fliggy.

French-language magazine Capital described the initiative as “a full-on opération séduction” of the Chinese – and it’s one that has spread nationwide as France aims to woo five million Chinese tourists a year by 2020.