New figures released by the World Tourism Organisation show that France had more inbound tourist visitors than any other country in 2012.

The research showed that 83m people visited the country – more than France's entire population of 65.43m.

The combination of Alpine ski stations, Mediterranean resorts and easy access to visitors from across Europe, have ensured the country has stayed in the top spot for every year on record.

France attracted 16m more people than visitors to the United States, which came in second place at 67m visitors, with China, Spain and Italy coming third through fifth respectively.

Despite these figures though, visitors to France seem unwilling to part with their cash when they arrive in the country. Only US$53.6bn (€40.3bn, £34.9bn) was spent by foreign visitors, less than half that of the United States, with visitors to America spending an average of US$126.2bn (€95bn, £82.2bn) per trip.

The relatively low spend in France can be explained by the fact that 83 per cent of its visitors come from other European countries, with many choosing to camp and buy food from supermarkets, rather than use hotels and restaurants.

Only 16.8 per cent of visitors to France visited Paris, although that still was enough to make it the third most-visited capital for overnight visitors at 13.92m people with London narrowly second at 15.96m visitors and Bangkok first with 15.98m visitors.