The French capital saw a slower start to summer, as tourists avoided the city in early summer amid fears of overcrowding and higher hospitality rates while it was playing host to the Olympic Games.
ADVERTISEMENTBookings at hotels in Paris have seen a last-minute rebound following a fall in take-up in June and July as the French capital geared up for the Olympic Games which came to an end on 11 August.
Hotel occupancy during the Games reached 84% in Paris, up about 10% on the same time last year and the recent increase in occupancy and bookings was helped by hotel owners offering discounts and incentives to tourists.
Even though some visitors managed to cancel earlier bookings and rebook at discounted prices, rooms were still booked at double their normal prices on average.
Some hotel owners sold non-refundable rooms well ahead of the Olympic Games, in order to ensure that their revenues did not suffer too much. Several hotels are also expecting slightly higher demand during the Paralympics, starting on 28 August.
Despite the last-minute improvement, it has not been enough to fully offset a dampened summer. Tourists not attending either the Games or Taylor Swift’s concerts, decided to give the city a miss because of the potential for steep price rises both at hotels and restaurants.
Paris had already hiked taxes on hotels and other accommodation at the beginning of the year.
Airlines including Delta and Air France-KLM Group earlier issued revenue warnings.
Air France-KLM Group said in early July: « International markets show a significant avoidance of Paris. Travel between the city and other destinations is also below the usual June-August average as residents in France seem to be postponing their holidays until after the Olympic Games or considering alternative travel plans.
« As a result, Air France-KLM currently estimates a negative impact on its forthcoming unit revenues in an order of magnitude from €160m to €180m for the period June until August 2024. The event has no impact on our guided capacity at this stage. »
Paris restaurants and museums see dampened sales
Although Paris hotels may have narrowly achieved a profitable Olympics season, several other tourist and cultural establishments, such as restaurants, museums and shops still struggled with weaker sales because of the Olympics.
Key museums such as The Louvre experienced a 22% fall in footfall during the Olympics. While shops and restaurants close to the sports sites recorded higher sales, those further away lost customers. Many Parisiennes choose to leave the city during August.
Restaurants and other places situated in the central Île de la Cité also saw a fall in revenue, because of the area around the River Seine being closed off while preparations for the Olympics were under way.
