After a massive slump in June and July due to security measures, some businesses near the capital’s competition sites are only now seeing an uptick in visitor numbers.
On a typical weekday, the Apollon Greek restaurant located a couple of hundred metres from the Eiffel Tower usually sees a massive queue snaking down the street.
But like many restaurants in Paris during the city’s Olympic summer, it has seen business fall into a slump.
More than 15 million visitors were expected in the French capital during the games, but according to multiple restaurant and bar owners, the boom they expected hasn’t materialised.
“It’s been one year since we’ve been preparing for the influx of tourists,” Apollon owner Aristotelis Stamkopoulos told Euronews. “We’ve been recruiting people and refusing staff leave.
“We’ve noticed that in June and July, we have a clear drop in visitor numbers, ranging from a loss of 30% to 60% on certain days. But since the start of the events, we’ve seen a slight increase compared to previous seasons, which has helped to smooth out our business activity.”
The capital’s 7th arrondissement may be close to some of the major competition sites, but security measures have limited people’s movement in the area, making it difficult for tourists to access the streets and pushing many residents to flee for the duration of the games.
Many visitors to the area have encountered metal fences, police checkpoints, and requests for a digital pass required to access certain areas of central Paris before the opening ceremony.
“Restaurants are like the metro: everything is empty”
A classic French restaurant a couple of streets away from Apollon had to remove its terrace due to security measures, meaning it lost approximately 62% of its seating capacity.
“The terrace is very important for our clientele. The lack of it discourages a lot of people and it’s a loss of business,” said a waiter who asked not to be named.
“It’s very arbitrary and random, we don’t understand how the zones were even decided. In our case, just across the street, the restaurant has a terrace and we don’t,” he told Euronews, pointing at a competing business flush with tourists enjoying the sun.
To make up for the losses, the restaurant has raised its prices by 30%.
“Sometimes, we close much earlier than usual in the evening due to the lack of clients. It can be nice to finish early, but when it becomes regular, it leaves a bitter taste,” said the waiter.
“Restaurants are like the metro: everything’s empty. We’re taking advantage of an empty Paris, but let’s hope the customers come back because, without them, we can’t work.”
Florent, the owner of another restaurant next door, Le Centenaire, explained that he too lost the use of his terrace — and with it, a third of his seating capacity.
On this particular street, the authorities decided the businesses on the even side numbers would be permitted to have an outside seating area while the uneven addresses would have to shut theirs down.
ADVERTISEMENTThe result is a sense of injustice and incomprehension among those on the losing side. But not everyone is despondent; one restaurant owner in the same area claims they have been full since the Olympics began.
“Since the opening of the games, there has been a small increase of 20% to 30% of clients compared to last year,” said Kevin Angot, owner of the Bar du Central restaurant.
“In June and July, we saw a 30-40% drop compared to last year. But overall, we’ve had a pretty positive outcome during the period of the Olympics.”
In other areas outside of the competition sites, the situation is a lot more bleak. Baptiste, the owner of a wine bar in the 11th arrondissement in eastern Paris, said he lost more than 40% of his usual revenue in July due to the lack of locals in the area and the unusual dearth of tourists, many of whom are not venturing outside the competition areas.
ADVERTISEMENTThe knock-on effect
Yet overall, restaurant owners remain hopeful for the next few weeks, with the upcoming Paralympic Games scheduled to run from 28 August until 8 September.
Some even have faith that the Olympics will have long-lasting benefits.
“I feel reassured as a businessman because Paris is receiving insane publicity all over the world due to the success of the Olympics. I think a lot of people will be coming to visit in the next few years,” said Apollon’s Stamkopoulos.
According to an initial estimate from Choose Paris, the capital’s tourism agency, the city saw a 20% increase in visitors at the end of July compared to the same period in 2023.
ADVERTISEMENT“There is indeed some disappointment because we expected to work a lot more, but it’s still too early to draw an overall conclusion,” David Zenouda, the vice president of the UMIH, a union representing the hotel and restaurant industry in the Paris region, told Euronews.
“I think that tourists who were reluctant to visit for the Olympics will perhaps see that things are going well, and we’ll have a nice influx at the end of the year and the beginning of 2025.”
