In Paris, the return of visitors and the outline of “behind” tourism

They missed Paris. On sunny days, foreign tourists return to the capital after a two-year epidemic that seeks to take advantage of a crisis town hall to transition to “more sustainable” tourism.

“When I’m at home, I miss Paris. Pete, 69, and Heidi, 66, both passed Thursday in front of a souvenir shop in the foothills of Switzerland Notre Dame, before Govit-19 lost this joy every year for 30 years. Heidi finds out that “a lot of restaurants and cafes are closed.” They smile all over the capital.

For the first time in Paris, Anne-Marie, 25, and her father, Henry, 55, who arrived by train from Munich, were overjoyed to have passed the epidemic without leaving Bavaria. Unsatisfied with the monuments, Anne-Marie, who did not want to be named, did not forget her mask for the Louvre’s visit. “I work in a hospital. I’m very careful.”

Helene, who came with a group of friends from Namur, met in Île Saint-Louis, no longer thinking about the virus, but about “catching” lost time. The Belgian Septuagint, who had not been to Paris for two decades, rediscovered it as “more pedestrians, much sweeter, less wild,” saying, “We are like children with wings on their backs.”

In front of the cathedral under construction, it was the same idea as entering a Pato-Mauch in Bond-Newf or between the four pillars of the Eiffel Tower: the crowded and cheerful crowd resumed its good old habits.

– Before Easter –

“Tourist arrivals began at the end of February, but this comes from the week before Easter,” Leo Razas confirms, adding that the number of foci sold on a freight bike parked at the Place to Palais-Royal on Thursday has tripled. Since the end of March.

20% more tourists compared to 2019, “without Russians or Asians”, underlined by Jean-Fran்கois Rial, head of the Paris Convention and Visitors’ Bureau (OTCP), in Wednesday’s BFM business, marking a turning point in the reunion over the Easter weekend. Fills hotels 82%. The Eiffel Tower recorded 22,000 visitors a day, very close to its maximum capacity.

This Easter weekend, North Americans (-2%) and Europeans (-8%), as before the outbreak, underscored the OTCP that “this dynamic must continue”.

In July, European tourists are expected to be in greater numbers in the capital than in 2019, while the OTCP estimates that Americans will return to “pre-epidemic levels” after the summer.

At the Eiffel Tower, in addition to the return of the Americans, we observe the “nationalization” of the “audience”, a quarter of the French audience, more than twice as much as before the crisis, underscores Jean-Franோois Martins, head of the operating company. (Gallery).

– A “more flexible” tour? –

In the absence of Russian tourists stranded by the Ukrainian conflict and more alert Asians coming out of the epidemic, this development is “very interesting as it is based on the influx of more local tourism, French and European countries,” said Frederick Hogwarts, G துணைnération.s, in charge of tourism at Paris City Hall.

Fewer arrivals on the plane, more on the train, longer stays and “better distributed across the territory”: for Anne Hidalkov’s deputy, the end of the crisis was “an opportunity to approach more sustainable tourism, so more resilience, more resilience crisis”.

With the establishment of the Limited Transport Zone (ZTL) in 2024, Mr. Hogard thus wants to “reduce tourist bus space in Paris” but “help hotels connect to central air conditioning” or establish bike parks, or “encourage the establishment of hotels on the east side of the city” to compensate for “more” western districts.

An example of this option is to “avoid overcrowding of tourists at the same time and in the same place.” Rial is now proud of “Alternative Paris”. A review of the best neighborhoods for street-art paintings on the Tourist Office website encourages you to cross the Ring Road to, for example, Vitry-sur-Seine or Saint-Denis.