French Riviera tourism statistics: the numbers that actually matter
More than twelve million tourists, close to seventy million overnight stays and a majority-international visitor base. Here are the numbers, and the scope behind them.
Mametas CheckedPractical information checked · September 2026
“French Riviera” does not always use the same statistical boundary. The Côte d’Azur Observatory uses Alpes-Maritimes + Monaco here. INSEE often publishes Alpes-Maritimes or the wider Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region.
The essential 2025 numbers
Sources: 12m+, 13m, ~66% and 85% from the Côte d’Azur France 2025 review; 6 nights and 67% from the Observatory dashboard.
An unusually international destination
More than half of 2025 tourists were international according to Côte d’Azur France. INSEE separately recorded 10.087 million hotel nights in Alpes-Maritimes in 2025, with 54.7% generated by people living abroad. During summer 2025 the foreign share reached 59.6%.
The United States is the largest foreign market
The Observatory says the US generated more than 15% of international overnight stays in 2025. The UK, Italy, Germany and Scandinavia remain among the other leading markets.
Nice Airport: 15.23 million passengers
Nice Côte d’Azur handled 15.23 million commercial passengers in 2025, up 3.2% year on year. International traffic rose 4.7%.
Nice Côte d’Azur Airport, 2025 results ↗︎ · Google Maps ↗︎
Average spending
The 2025 review says average daily spending by air-arriving visitors exceeds €110 per day. It is an average.
The move upmarket is real
INSEE reports that upscale hotels in Alpes-Maritimes grew again in summer 2025: total nights +4.9%, foreign nights +12.3%.
June is no longer a shoulder-season footnote
The Observatory described June 2025 as a record month and now places it alongside July and August as a core summer month.
What 2026 is showing
INSEE’s regional series still shows hotel-night growth across several months in Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur: +5.3% in March, +3.8% in April, +5.7% in May, +1.3% in June and +3.4% in July versus 2025. These are provisional regional figures.
Why this page exists
Riviera tourism data is scattered between the Observatory, INSEE, airport reporting and seasonal reviews. This page puts the strongest numbers into one clearly scoped, dated reference and will be updated with the next consolidated review.