Paris is once again the world’s top tourist destination, France’s regional tourism body has declared, a month after authorities angrily dismissed reports that London had overtaken the French capital as the world’s most popular city.

Despite some tough global economic conditions, it said 2013 was an “ exceptional year” for tourism in Paris and the surrounding Ile-de-France region, with foreign visitors at “the highest level in 10 years”.

In all, some 32.3 million tourists flocked to the City of Lights, hotel figures suggest. Nearly 15.5 million of these were foreign visitors, representing an 8.2 percent increase from the previous year.

The largest number of foreign tourists were Britons – some 2.1 million visitors – followed by Americans, Germans, Italians and Chinese, whose numbers shot up by almost 53 per cent to 881,000.

The only black spot was a drop in Frenchclientele, some 7.5 per cent less than in 2012.

The figures came weeks after a row over which capital attracted the most tourists - London, or Paris.

Figures published in January showed the number of foreign visitors to London surged by almost 20 per cent last summer to a new record of 4.9 million between July and September.

“For the first time in history, the city [London] is on course to welcome over 16 million overseas visitors in one year,” the British capital’s tourism agency London &Partners said in a statement.

This led French right-wing daily Le Figaro to declare: “London dethrones Paris”.

Boris Johnson, London’s mayor, weighed in.

“These incredible figures prove that London is without doubt the greatest city on the planet,” he extolled.

Anne Hidalgo, favourite to succeed Bertrand Delano?, her fellow Socialist, as mayor of Paris in elections this month, then hit back at a “boastful” Mr Johnson, saying: “London aggressively sells itself, often in a way that goes beyond the truth.”

She said Paris beats London hands down in tourism, start-ups, shopping, safety and as a place to live with families.

Later she toned down her comments, saying: “Yes, the two cities are competitors – but if we also work together, we can be a global partnership to reckon with.”

法國地區(qū)旅游機(jī)構(gòu)稱，法國巴黎仍是世界最受歡迎的旅游城市。就在一個月前，有報告指倫敦已取代巴黎，成為世界觀光之都，法國否認(rèn)了這一觀點(diǎn)。

法國方面的報告稱，盡管全球經(jīng)濟(jì)形勢嚴(yán)峻，2013年對巴黎和周圍法蘭西島(俗稱“大巴黎區(qū)”，Ile-de-France)的旅游業(yè)來說是“特別的一年”，外國游客人數(shù)達(dá)到10年來的最高水平。

據(jù)酒店數(shù)據(jù)顯示，去年共有3230萬名游客來到“光之城”(the City of Lights)巴黎，其中約有1550萬人是外國游客，比上年增長8.2%。

外國游客人數(shù)中，英國人占首位，達(dá)到210萬人。其次是來自美國、德國、意大利和中國的游客，中國游客人數(shù)增長了53%，達(dá)到88.1萬人。

唯一的不足是法國國內(nèi)到巴黎大區(qū)的游客人數(shù)有所下降，比2012年減少了7.5%。

這些數(shù)據(jù)公開的數(shù)周前，關(guān)于倫敦和巴黎誰才是吸引游客人數(shù)最多城市的爭論引發(fā)熱議。

今年一月份公布的數(shù)據(jù)顯示，去年夏天到倫敦旅游的外國游客增長了20%，在七月到九月這段期間達(dá)到490萬人，創(chuàng)歷史新高。

英國倫敦發(fā)展促進(jìn)署(London&Partners)在一份聲明中說，“倫敦歷史上首次在一年內(nèi)迎來了超過1600萬名旅客。”

法國傳統(tǒng)右翼媒體《費(fèi)加羅報》(Le Figaro)甚至宣稱“倫敦推翻了巴黎”。

倫敦市長鮑里斯·約翰遜(Boris Johnson)也參與到討論中來，他稱贊“這些驚人的數(shù)字證明了倫敦?zé)o疑是這個星球上最偉大的城市”。

作為接任巴黎市長貝特朗·德拉諾埃(Bertrand Delano?)的熱門人選，安妮·伊達(dá)爾戈 (Anne hidalgo)在本月選舉時抨擊倫敦市長約翰遜，認(rèn)為“倫敦過分吹噓，與事實(shí)不符。”

她說巴黎在旅游業(yè)，新興企業(yè)，購物，安全和宜居環(huán)境等方面遠(yuǎn)勝倫敦。

不過之后她又緩和了言論的語氣：“沒錯，兩個城市是競爭者——但如果我們能共同協(xié)