Do tourist offices still serve a purpose? This question is raised once again, as the last remaining branch of the Paris tourist office is to close down for good. Gone will be the store with its advisers, brochures, maps of Paris and souvenir mugs of the French capital. The office will continue to carry out its mission, but through its website, app and social media.

This decision, coming from the world's leading tourist destination (some 50 million visitors a year travel to the Paris region), may come as a surprise. Particularly at a time when Paris is banking on the legacy of the Olympic and Paralympic Games to attract visitors. What's more, physical tourist offices continue to exist in many European capitals, such as London, Madrid and Rome – these cities even have several offices.

Until recently, this was the case in Paris. At the beginning of 2017, the tourist office, officially named Paris je t'aime, or "Paris, I love you", had five offices. It had welcomed some 424,000 people. Their declining attendance, coupled with high expenses, led to their closure. The right formula for attracting visitors and developing commercial activity, in a context turned upside down by the proliferation of information on the Internet, has not been found.

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