Paris gets safer for tourists from Asia

Robberies of Chinese and Japanese tourists in Paris decreased significantly in the first nine months of this year, the police in Paris said on Wednesday.

"Robberies committed against Chinese tourists have dropped 25 percent in the first nine months this year, illustrating the decline in this type of crime even though the number of visitors from China has increased by 50 percent for the last three years," the police department said.

Last year, for the first time, Chinese nationals surpassed Japanese as the largest group of Asian tourists visiting Paris. About 880,000 Chinese tourists visited Paris last year, almost double the figure from the previous year, according to the Paris Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Although more than 10 million overseas tourists visit Paris every year, cash-carrying, unguarded Chinese tourists are especially easy targets for pickpockets, and even for violent crimes such as robbery and rape.

Many tourists, especially those from Asia, get "Paris syndrome", a sort of culture shock phenomenon: They arrive in Paris expecting a friendly, quaint European capital as seen in movies and are horrified when confronted with the reality of rude French service and ubiquitous thieves.

Christophe Soullez, a criminologist and director of the French National Supervisory Body on Crime and Punishment, said that it is true that Chinese and Japanese tourists are targeted more than other nationalities.