Nordic Visitor has launched France as a new destination, adding 12 new tours across two categories and, for the first time, linking its established programmes in the British Isles and the Nordics to the Alps and Italy. The expansion gives agents and travellers access to self-drive and rail itineraries across Western Europe. It arrives as France caps a record year for international travel.
France is positioned as a connector rather than a standalone addition. Sitting between the UK and Italy, with rail and road links into Switzerland and beyond, it lets Nordic Visitor join previously separate destinations into single, continuous journeys. This kind of multi-country routing is logistically awkward to assemble independently and is rarely offered as a packaged, reshapeable product.
The launch lands at a high point for French travel. France was the world's most visited country in 2025, welcoming a record 102 million international visitors and generating €77.5 billion in tourism revenue, up 9% on the previous year, according to figures released by the French Economy Ministry. Tellingly for operators, tourism authorities reported that visitors increasingly paired time in Paris and other cities with trips into the regions, the multi-stop pattern Nordic Visitor’s France programme is built around.
A company called Nordic Visitor selling Provence is a fair thing to raise an eyebrow at. But we never sold ourselves as the northern-lights people. We sell careful planning, and we've done it for more than twenty years across Scandinavia and, more recently, Scotland, Italy, and the Alps. The skill is in the planning, and good planning doesn’t stop at a border.
- Sigfús Steingrímsson, CEO
The French programme spans three distinct regions. Paris anchors the city experience; Provence covers the countryside, Roman history, art and the national parks; and the French Riviera brings the coastal cities, beaches and the region's old-Hollywood heritage. The core offering is self-drive, with high-speed rail elements including the TGV from Paris to Avignon.
Most itineraries are built around fixed bases: Avignon, Aix-en-Provence and Nice. Day trips radiate out, rather than a different hotel each night. For travellers, that means less packing and unpacking and more time in each region; for agents, it makes a complex multi-region trip simpler to sell and to service.
The launch extends the planning approach Nordic Visitor is known for in Iceland, Norway and Scotland: locally informed routing, seasonal awareness and on-the-ground support throughout the trip. The company designs each itinerary in-house and tailors it to the traveller.
