Comprehension: Chinese Tourists Targeted by Paris Pickpockets

With pickpocketing and other petty crime on the increase in Paris, analysts say that Chinese tourists are being singled out for special attention. And with some half a million of them visiting the French capital every year, Paris authorities are taking the problem seriously. 

Watch the video and answer the questions below.  Decide if the statements are True or False.

1. Over half a million Chinese Tourists visit Paris every year.
a. True
b. False

2. There were 6,000 incidents of pickpocketing in the first three months of 2013.
a. True
b. False

3. Paris earns 30 million euros from tourism every year.
a. True
b. False

For transcript and answers see below.

Transcript and Answers:

More than half a million of them visit Paris every year.  But Chinese tourists are increasingly being targeted by pickpockets and other petty criminals.  In March of this year alone, 23 of them were assaulted or robbed by people who see them as particularly vulnerable targets.

 "Pickpockets think that Chinese people have a lot of cash on them, that they're easy prey, and of course in harassment cases Chinese tourists can't defend themselves properly because they don't speak the language and they can't respond physically."

 And the crime figures continue to go up: more than 7500 incidents of pickpocketing in the first quarter of 2013, compared to fewer than 6000 over the same period last year.  City authorities say it's become a whole industry.

 "These are people with a great deal of delinquency in their past, who are generally extremely specialised they’re pickpockets, not opportunists. They are mostly foreign nationals, especially from central or eastern Europe."
                    
 To catch them, or dissuade them, police are now deploying some 200 officers every day to the main tourist sites.  The area around the Eiffel Tower is also patrolled by a dozen policemen on bicycles with more plain-clothes officers stationed on the tower itself.

 "The pickpockets come in here with the wallets, they throw them in the bin here or sometimes up in the false ceiling, they open this up and stash the wallets here."

Paris has also launched an information campaign to try and bring crime rates down.  Most tourists say they’re trying to be careful.

"Each day we usually have less than 100 euros, just like, it depends where we go as well, we just bring just enough for the whole day."
                   
 It's an issue city authorities will want to sort out fast.  With 30 million visitors annually, Paris earns around eight billion euros from tourism every year and they won’t want to see their pockets picked when the sums involved are that big.

Answers:
1. a
2. b
3. b

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