Frank Delvau President of the Union of trades and hotel industries Paris Ile-de-France gradually find a smile. Spring break starting this Friday is looking good.
The tourists come back
Guest of France Bleu Paris this Friday, the president of the UMIH Paris IDF, indicates that “for the first time, we have found the pre-Covid level with, in Paris, a lot of tourists“.
In 2020 and 2021, Paris and Ile-de-France were the region which, in France, had lost the most tourists, says Frank Delvau. In 2019, our region welcomed 51 million tourists. This year 2022 could do just as well. Already, in some hotels, “reservations exceed 80%, so it’s excellent“.
Tourists are mostly European
It is mainly Europeans who come on vacation to our region. “For now, the Chinese are stuck at home, they can’t get outexplains the president of the UMIH Paris IDF. “We had the Russians but, of course, that was before the war. As to Americans, there are a few, but less so far. Same for the _Japanese_, because they are partly worried because of the war in Ukraine. On their scale, in Europe, Paris, kyiv, it’s close“.
For the summer he will have to wait to see what will happen in Ukraine, says Frank Delvau. He thinks that, one way or another, this will have repercussions on the tourist frequentation of Paris.
Business tourism finds it harder to recover
For business tourism, the situation is more complicated. We have not yet returned to the figures for 2019, indicates the president of the UMIH Paris IDF. In 2021, 200 trade fairs were canceled in Paris, which was the capital of business tourism in 2019.
Today it starts again. The first event that marked the recovery was the Agricultural Show. Next week there is the Paris Fair which is an event that attracts 500,000 visitors.
But the trend still today is that the shows are partly virtual, notes the president of the UMIH Paris IDF. It is necessary, he said,recalibrate the destination Paris worldwide, both for tourism, but also for business tourism and then you need to have an action plan around this destination “Paris”.
The shortage of staff risks forcing restaurateurs to modify their operations
The profession has recruitment issues which already existed before the Covid, but which have increased, underlines Frank Delvau. Yet, he says, the salary scale has been revised since April 1, 2022, with average increases of 16%.
The president of the UMIH Paris IDF thinks that, perhaps, a new functioning will be put in place. “Finding a restaurant open seven days a week is going to be increasingly rare“, he predicts.
Frank Delvau also emphasizes hospitality. He believes that a tourist is welcomed as soon as he arrives in France, at the airport if he comes by plane. You have to think, he explains, to simplify the journey from Roissy to Paris and also think about the policy of “last mile“.