(Paris) With 6.3 million visitors in 2023, the Eiffel Tower was busier than in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, its operating company (Sete) announced on Friday.
Last year, which saw attendance increase by 8% compared to 2022, “was marked by numerous tributes paid to Gustave Eiffel on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of his death” and “the establishment of new services” such as guided tours or the catering offer by great chefs such as Frédéric Anton and Thierry Marx, underlines the company in a press release.
The Iron Lady, which welcomed up to 7 million visitors in 2014 and another 6.2 million in 2019, had to close from mid-March to the end of June 2020, during the first confinement, then again at the end of October 2020 in mid-July 2021. Open for only five and a half months in 2021, it welcomed 2.1 million visitors that year.
The French remain the leading visitors to this emblematic Parisian monument (18.9%), followed closely by tourists from North America (18%), particularly from the United States (13.2%).
Europeans outside France represent 44% of visitors, up compared to 2019, when they represented around 40%.
The Germans are in the lead (7.8%), followed by the English (6.8%) and the Spanish (6.4%).
In connection with the Rugby World Cup in France in 2023, there were more visitors from Oceania (2.6% from Australia and New Zealand compared to 2% in 2019).
The trend is the same in the major Parisian museums. With exceptional exhibitions and an appetite increased tenfold by the restrictions experienced during the health crisis, they have broken historical attendance records, like the Musée d’Orsay, or returned to their 2019 levels.