Paris didn’t only make the list of the top five most visited cities but also made the top fifty in the cities most attacked. 

Paris is one of the most visited international cities in the world, with over 15 million visitors each year. However, tourist rates have declined in the past year; the Louvre attendance has fallen by nearly 20% in just two years.

The decline in tourist  interest cannot be attributed to the lack of attractions, but to the increase in terrorist attacks.

With in the first nine months of 2016, tourist rates in France declined by 5%. Traveler spending also fell about 1% from 2015 to 2016.

2012 was a year of blood and loss for Paris. In March, Mohammed Merah killed three soldiers,three Jewish children, and a teacher in a violent gun attack. December 2013 was a month of grief. In December, a man drove into 10 pedestrians at Nantes. That same month, another driver injured 11 people at Dijon, France. Later, French citizen stabbed three officers while shouting  “Allahu akbar!” 

 Since 2015, there have been dozens more terrorist attacks. Several explosions, stabbing, mass shootings and religious persecutions have occurred. 

A man wielding a machete was shot in Paris this week of February 2017. This man who attacked a group of soldiers was shot at an underground Plaza near the Louvre Museum. The attacker was the tourist who had come to Paris on a visit in January 26, and bought two military machetes at a local gun store. The soldiers that were attacked by the gunman suffer of only minor injuries, well the attack it was killed after being shot in the stomach five times.

Along with all the previous attacks in Paris that have killed hundreds, this was another blow to France’s pride and rank as a tourist nation.