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Paris hotels have managed a successful Olympics thanks to last minute bookings, but many French museums, restaurants and shops struggled with slow sales during the two-week blockbuster event.
Hotels had a poor June and early July, with tourists who might otherwise have visited Paris staying away. But this was made up for during the Games, with occupancy rates reaching 84 per cent in the city centre, 10 percentage points up on a year ago, according to industry data.
However visitors benefited from hotel owners — worried by the quieter start to summer — offering discounts on rooms as the Olympics, which ran from July 26 to August 11, drew closer.
“People cancelled reservations and booked again at lower rates,” said Frank Delvau, head of the hospitality sector union UMIH in the capital’s home region of Île-de-France.
Rooms sold on average for double their normal rates but this did not match the tripling of prices observed during the London and Beijing Olympics, he added.
Philippe Villin, a financial adviser who owns and manages the Libertel group that has five hotels in Paris, said hotels that had sold non-refundable rooms in advance ensured decent revenues during the Games, but this would not make up for weak bookings that began in April.
“Sales over a fortnight do not compensate for a ruined spring and summer,” he said.
Initial studies have found that the Games were still a net economic benefit for the hotel sector during the event and over the summer season. According to consultancy MKG, hotels in Paris and the surrounding region have earned €291mn in revenues since June.
Despite a post-Olympics booking lull again in August, even in the run-up to the Paralympics starting on August 28, many hope to benefit from the international publicity for the city and for sites like the Versailles palace, where equestrian events were held.
“Everyone knows Versailles but the backdrop was just undeniably exceptional,” said Jean-Philippe Hubau, the manager of Les Lumières, a five-star hotel in Versailles that was fully booked during the events, with rooms priced at more than €1,000 a night, double the usual rates.
Overall, economists expect the Games to provide a marginal net boost to gross domestic product in the third quarter, while Paris 2024 organisers are hopeful about longer term effects.
Some 11.2mn French and foreign tourists descended on the region during the Olympics, up 4 per cent from a year earlier, according to official figures. This included a marked return of Chinese tourism, which had not recovered from Covid-19. Caretaker tourism minister Olivia Grégoire last week said the Games could provide an up to €9bn boost to the economy over 15 years.
The 2024 Games have created some clear losers in the tourism industry. As happened in London in 2012, museums lost out as visitors concentrated on sports. The Louvre, the world’s most visited museum, reported a 22 per cent drop in footfall during the Games. For January to July, its visitor numbers were down 4 per cent overall.
Restaurants and shops away from event sites also suffered as many locals left the capital, said Delvau, while those close by enjoyed a bonanza.
Payments group and Olympics sponsor Visa found that spending by its cardholders at Paris restaurants increased 49 per cent during the Games.
“We had a crazy surge after the opening ceremony,” said Carlos Marques, the manager of five bakeries in Paris. These include one in the central Île de la Cité, which lost 70 per cent of its revenue from June to July when the banks of the Seine were temporarily sealed off for Olympics preparations.
Some businesses have invested in the hope of a longer term boost. Doudou et Compagnie, one of the makers of the Phryge Olympics mascot, hired 20 extra people at its factory in Brittany to produce the toys.
“We’ll not go down again after the Games. The factory will endure in France,” said co-founder Alain Joly. Its commercial partners had sold 1.3mn of the toys so far and new orders were coming in, he added.
For some, however, including in other parts of France that hosted Olympic events, the prospect of longer term benefits does not make up for current problems.
In the southern port city of Marseille, where sailing competitions were held, Fatiah Hamadouche said her restaurant and 40 other eateries and shops along one stretch of the Olympics marina had disappointing sales during the event, coming after two poor years marred by construction work to prepare for the Games.
“We’re on the verge of collapse,” Hamadouche said. Many nearby beaches and car parks were closed during the event, while local businesses also had to compete with temporary food trucks. “We can’t wait for a boost next year, it needs to be now.”
