Euroguides - essential for visitors and travellers to Europe - France - Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

Alpes-Maritimes has become one of the world's most attractive tourist destinations in recent years, featuring renowned cities and towns such as Nice, Grasse, Cannes, Antibes, Menton, Èze, Roquebrune-Cap-Martin and Sainte-Agnès, as well as numerous alpine ski resorts. It also entirely surrounds the Principality of Monaco. The department's inhabitants are called Maralpins (masculine) or Maralpines (feminine); its flag and arms are those of the City of Nice. In terms of politics, Alpes-Maritimes is one of France's most right-wing departments, as the majority led by The Republicans in the departmental council holds all but two of the 54 seats following the 2021 election.
The presence of the Mediterranean Sea and the French Alps under a mild sky has favoured one dominant activity: tourism, which accounts for 64,000 jobs directly in the Alpes-Maritimes. For only the city of Nice the tourism turnover represents a 12 to 13% share of the whole tourism market in France. The capital of the Côte d'Azur is the fifth most populous city in France. The city of Nice also has the second largest airport in France (Nice Côte d'Azur Airport), after Paris and its three airports at Roissy, Orly and Le Bourget. There are nearly 13.5 million passengers per year passing through Nice Airport.
The seaside where the majority of the population resides is one of the most popular parts of the world with many attractions:

Seaside resorts (Théoule-sur-Mer, Mandelieu-la-Napoule, Cannes, Golfe-Juan, Juan-les-Pins, Antibes, Cagnes-sur-Mer, Nice, Villefranche-sur-Mer, Beaulieu-sur-Mer, Èze-sur-Mer, Cap d'Ail, Roquebrune-Cap-Martin and Menton)

Convention cities that spread their business throughout the year are Cannes, with its Palais des Festivals, and Nice, with its Acropolis.

The area inland from the busy French Riviera is an excellent base for many outdoor sports: cycling, mountain biking, skiing, walking, rock climbing, canyoning, canoeing, rafting, fishing, horse riding, Adventure parks, caving and the area has the first ever underground via ferrata. The area has internationally renowned paragliding and hang gliding flying sites at Col-de-Bleyne, Gourdon, Gréolières and Lachens.
In the mountains, skiing and hiking bring life to Saint-Étienne-de-Tinée (Auron), Beuil, Péone (Valberg), Saint-Martin-Vésubie, Isola, Gréolières, Peïra-Cava, Col de Turini, and Turini-Camp d'argent in the Authion mountains.
According to the general census of the population on 1 January 2008, 23.2% of available housing in the department were second homes.