A tale of two websites

This summer saw major relaunches for the official tourist sites of both Britain and France, with both proving that enticing visitors both online and in person isn't as easy as it seems.

VisitBritain launched its new website in June, focusing on social media and introducing new features such as magazine-style articles, personalized content and Flickr photo galleries - 95 percent of the image content is user generated.

The launch went well, but the tourism body drew comments from around the world - not always positive - a few months later when it added new content telling Britons how to welcome visitors to the 2012 London Olympic Games.

Among the pieces of guidance were items such as "be tolerant if Indians at first seem impolite, noisy and impatient. This is partly the result of living in chaotic cities and environments."

Other advice included "remember Arabs are not used to being told what to do" and "when meeting Mexicans it is best not to discuss poverty, illegal aliens, earthquakes or their 1845-6 war with America."

Although VisitBritain said that the guides had been compiled by natives of each country, some bloggers described the advice as "bizarre" and "offensive."

Across the channel in France, however, things were going even more badly.

The revamped France.fr, slated for a launch on France's Bastille Day national holiday (July 14), fell over almost immediately and was offline for around a month while technical difficulties were solved.

It finally limped back into life on August 16, but the good news was almost immediately drowned out by the discovery of French publication Le Canard enchainé that it had cost €4 million to produce.

Despite the "interruption," France.fr is now a comprehensive resource, advising visitors on everything from becoming self-employed in France to finding a national monument during a visit.

In total, the site offers some 3,000 pages and over a million indexed documents and is available in French, English, German, Spanish and Italian.

Check out the best and the worst of each website for yourself:

http://www.visitbritain.com/
http://www.france.fr