In 2013, tourism directly contributed 79.8 billion euros to France’s gross domestic product (GDP), with overseas tourists accounting for 30% and domestic tourism spending accounting for 70%. The entire contribution of travel and tourism to GDP is 9.7%, with 2.9 million jobs (10.9 percent of total employment) in the country. Tourism makes a considerable contribution to the balance of payments.

In 2018, France received 89 million foreign tourists, the most of any country on the planet.

France has 45 sites on the UNESCO World Heritage List, which include towns or locations of outstanding cultural worth (the most famous being Paris, but others include the Loire Valley, Toulouse, Strasbourg, Bordeaux, and Ly).

So one of the reasons France is powerful is becauase it is a magnet for tourism, when you are leading an orgnization make it a magnet for recuirtment, consumers to buy there, and exuctives to work there.