Brief respite before the madness of the Games. In Paris, this June, the tourist groups around Notre-Dame are a bit more scattered than usual, and the monuments are breathing a little easier, much to the delight of visitors. The trend is set to continue right up to the Olympic Games, and even intensify during the first three weeks of July, when air arrivals in Paris, a good barometer of tourist activity in the capital, "are down by 15% compared with the same period in 2023," said Corinne Menegaux, Director of the Paris Tourist Office.
While tourists may be able to take advantage of a less crowded city, Parisian hoteliers are feeling the pinch. For the week of 24-30 June, for example, they recorded an average occupancy rate of 63%, according to data from MKG, based on a panel of 278 Parisian establishments. In 2023, at the same time, these rates fluctuated between 80% and 85%.
For the first two weeks of July, half the rooms are empty. "It's not a great period. June is normally one of the best months for hotels in the capital," said Olivier Cohn, General Manager of Best Western France – this month, his Parisian hotels recorded a 15% drop in sales compared with last year.
The phenomenon was expected: London experienced the same eviction effect in 2012, just before the Games. The prospect of the mega-event is discouraging some travelers who could have come to Paris but prefer to postpone, anticipating difficulties in getting around or accessing certain sites, or a spike in prices. "People are postponing their plans or coming for the Olympics. We have fewer Americans in Paris at the moment, but they are the main foreign visitors who will be here during the Games," said the director of the Paris Tourist Office.
Some hotel operators are critical of the publicity surrounding the Games, which Pascal Donat, chairman of the Valotel group, owner of four hotels in Paris, described as "off-putting." "We've heard a lot of anxiety-provoking messages... People have said to themselves, 'I'm not coming to Paris this summer'," he said.
The Paris regional tourist board is struggling to convince tourists it's still worth it. "Contrary to what you might think, Paris is not closed! Apart from a few sites, such as the Invalides and the Concorde, everything is still accessible," insisted Christophe Decloux, director of the organization, which in recent days has launched promotional campaigns aimed at Belgians, Britons, Dutch and Swiss who might decide at the last minute to spend a weekend in Paris. He is trying to attract visitors with events around the 150th anniversary of Impressionism, which have slipped a little under the radar in the current climate.
You have 44.31% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.