The competition is undoubtedly at least as eagerly awaited by fans of the sport as it is by tourism professionals. The Rugby World Cup kicks off in France in just a few days' time on September 8 – with the France-New Zealand clash at the Stade de France – and fever is already gripping hotel prices in some of the 10 host cities of Lille, Marseille, Toulouse, Lyon, Bordeaux, Nice, Saint-Etienne, Nantes, Paris and Saint-Denis.
"In Lille, it's spectacular," said Eva Fouquet, vice president of Kayak France, the world's number-one travel search engine. "The rate for a room for two people is rising by an average of 77%, to €171 (compared with €96 last year)," as many Brits are expected in the city. In Marseille, which hosts six matches, the average cost is €181, up 59% from €114 last year.
"Given these figures, I can only advise hoteliers to rein in their prices," said Laurent Lhardit, who is in charge of sustainable tourism for the city. Nonetheless, Lhardit pointed out that there is no shortage of accommodation, thanks to the 11,000 short-term rental offers. In addition, "many travelers stay with friends or family," he added.
In Paris, not all Accor Group hotels have been fully booked to date: "Probably because rugby customers are staying more with local people," said Sébastien Bazin, chairman of the hotel group, who noted that short-term rental platforms have put "more offers than usual" on the market. This summer, however, hotel rates have already jumped by more than 40% since 2019 in the capital.
Foreign tourists are expected in large numbers. According to estimates by Atout France, France's tourism development agency, there should be almost 600,000 of them. Half of all tickets sold were to international clientele, a quarter of whom come from the British Isles – English, Irish, Welsh, Scottish – followed by other European countries and more distant locations such as Oceania.
"If we take the average of all tourists, they will stay for two weeks, attend two or three matches and spend €300 a day," said Jacques Rivoal, president of the steering committee of the France 2023 Rugby World Cup. Given the distances involved, however, the New Zealanders, who will be the most numerous, and the Australians will stay an average of around 20 days, i.e., twice as long as the South Africans, the defending champions, who have larger budgets.
"For some, this is the trip of a lifetime," said Benoît Auvray, head of tourism at the Toulouse steering committee, which is also preparing to welcome a large number of Japanese visitors. In the city chosen to host the Japanese players' base camp, "hospitality professionals have been preparing for more than two years to welcome these tourists according to their customs," said the specialist. "In some hotels, miso soup and rice will be served for breakfast," he explained, while cab doors will be fitted with stickers bearing welcome messages in Japanese.
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