2023-07-31 02:43:01
Holidaymakers at the rendezvous, good or even better booking rates than last year and a month of August which promises to live up to expectations: the summer got off to a good start in Béarn and Bigorre for the players in the tourism, in the mountains as well as in the plain. Many holidaymakers are still renting accommodation or gites, sometimes even more numerous than in 2022. But inflation has played a non-negligible role this year, cutting into tourists’ holiday budgets and forcing some rental companies to raise prices.
A Tour de France effect
In the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, and more particularly Béarn, the Gîtes de France recorded a stable booking rate in July compared to last year, with even a very slight increase. It was especially the first week of July that made the differencewith 50% more requests compared to 2022. Probably an effect of the passage of the Tour de France between Pau and Laruns on July 5, and the next day’s stage in Bigorre between Tarbes and Cauterets.
The lodges also note an increase in turnover, which can also be explained by the increase in the price of furnished rentals. A consequence of inflation: the lessors had to compensate for the higher costs of the charges this year like electricity for example.
Rising rental prices
“Prices have increased slightly” confirms Cathy Bonesso, director of the Gîtes de France agency in the Hautes-Pyrénées, “the owners have adjusted them due to the context of the increase in all charges. And it is by ricochet that this is transcribed on the average baskets, the total amount of reservations”. This average basket increased by more than 2% in July and more than 5% in August according to Cathy Bonesso. A similar trend in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, where the departmental tourism committee notes that some furnished apartments show an increase of nearly 10% or even 20% in August. The campsites have also slightly increased their prices.
The good figures induced by the rise in prices sometimes hide more complicated realities. Anne-Marie has been running a Béarn gite for years in Laroin, on the hillsides, a few kilometers from Pau. This summer more than the others, she records a decline in bookings. “A big drop in requests” she explains, “and in my opinion it is due to the purchasing power which has fallen, and I find myself with still room for this summer”. Anne-Marie also notes that holidaymakers are asking to book for shorter periods: a weekend or a week instead of the usual fifteen days or three weeks.
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