(Paris) A “restored image”, a smooth organisation, fully booked hotels: tourism professionals are drawing a positive initial assessment of the Olympic Games and are hoping for an additional influx of benefits in the coming days.
“As we are already an extremely touristy capital, the challenge for us was to be able to promote all the values of the city, whether in terms of sustainable tourism, soft mobility, water preservation, the Seine, etc. The Olympic Games were a magnificent way to highlight them,” Corinne Menegaux, general director of the Paris Tourist Office, told AFP.
According to an initial report from the Office published on Monday, 11.2 million visitors took part, with or without a ticket, in activities linked to the Olympic Games in the Paris region between July 23 and August 11.
This is as many as the number of visitors over the same period in 2023 and in line with the 11.3 million visitors expected by the organization. With the 4 million visitors expected at the Paralympic Games (90% of whom are French), the event should therefore attract 15 million visitors.
According to Paris 2024, more than 9.5 million tickets were sold and 6 million visitors visited the celebration sites.
“We are counting on this magnificent image to have further leverage effects on tourist numbers between now and the end of the year and over the next two or three years,” emphasizes Corinne Menegaux.
85% of visitors were French, including 45% from the Paris region, and 15% were foreigners, led by Americans, Germans and British, all more numerous than in the same period in 2023, according to this data.
Hotels full
For hoteliers, after a more than gloomy start to July, occupancy rates, thanks to foreigners, finally reached 84% within Paris, i.e. 10 points more than on the same dates in 2023 (July 23/August 6).
This increase particularly benefits high-end establishments, with an occupancy rate of 85.5% (+16.5 points).
All the host cities (Lille, Marseille, Châteauroux, etc.) benefited from this, with overnight stays increasing by 16% for French visitors and 18% for international visitors, according to ADN Tourisme, which brings together tourist offices.
This translates into a gain of 357 million euros for hoteliers in France, according to calculations by the MKG firm, which estimates that this increase in turnover makes it possible to compensate for the gloomy weeks preceding the event.
In Paris, “the euphoria of the Olympic Games has really taken place, with occupancy rates increasing and prices more than doubling (+118%)”, explains MKG.
Atypical behavior
A windfall that also benefited furnished rentals such as Airbnb, for whom the Games are “the biggest event in the history of Airbnb” with “more than 400,000 travelers” staying in the Paris region.
PHOTO LUIS ROBAYO, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
Tourists near the Eiffel Tower.
AirDNA, a firm that analyzes data from several platforms (Airbnb, Abritel, etc.), confirms: the occupancy rate of tourist rentals in Paris reached 62% during these Games, more than in 2023, despite the surge in the number of advertisements, with many last-minute bookings.
There are winners and losers: restaurants and shops far from competition sites, museums, tourist sites like Disneyland Paris have seen their attendance erode.
“While accommodation has been able to compensate for lower attendance since June through price increases, this is not the case for catering, which has therefore been rather penalised” by the Games, underlines MKG.
“The behaviour of visitors over these 15 days is absolutely not the same as normal tourist behaviour. Activities such as museum visits or restaurants therefore do not behave in the same way,” explains Corinne Menegaux.
Visitors who preferred on-site dining were also more likely to eat on the go and spend less.
But for Corinne Menegaux, this should be compensated by the activity of the coming weeks: “we have arrivals from tomorrow”, she assures, “people motivated by the atmosphere of the Games and who have seen that ultimately everything is going well”.