Tourism professionals in France said on Saturday they expect a good tourist season despite inflation, while budgets for spring break are up sharply, according to an industry federation. “The French who take spring break devote a budget 29% higher than that of 2019, and 25% more than that of last year”, note in a press release Les Entreprises du Voyage. An evolution which “results from the increase in air fares and more generally from that of all tourist services”, continues this organization which federates 1,600 travel agencies and tour operators.
“Because of inflation, the income is excellent”, the cost of trips to a dozen “flagship countries” for Voyageurs du Monde having increased by 15% to 20% compared to 2019, explained on France Inter the Group CEO, Jean-François Rial.
“Fewer customers, more revenue”
For the summer, the number of reservations exceeds by 35% that recorded on the same date last year and by 8% that of 2019, before the health crisis, according to Les Entreprises du Voyage. Jean-François Rial said he would not be “surprised if we did better than 2019 in revenue, which was a record year”. For the CEO of Voyageurs du Monde, “today you have a little less customers, but much more income”, and “the tourist activity has never worked so well in the world”.
“Today the indicators are green. We have very good levels of reservations”, reported for his part on RMC Arnaud Bennet, president of the Syndicate of leisure, attraction and cultural spaces (Snelac). “We find the levels of the best years”, he added while many sites reopened their doors on Saturday following the winter break, on the occasion of the Easter weekend.
Recruitment difficulties
However “business tourism is having a little more trouble returning to the level of what it was” before the health crisis and Chinese tourists remain largely absent, particularly in France, explains Jean-François Rial, who is also the president. from the Paris tourist office. In Paris, “the last occupancy rates I saw were around 85% to 90%”, he says, adding that they may have dropped slightly due to the images of violence and garbage can fires which punctuated the demonstrations once morest the pension reform. “The impact is real, there are real cancellations, it’s obviously not good” for Paris and France, believes the CEO of Voyageurs du Monde, but ensuring that “it will be marginal over the year, at unless it lasts six months”.
To cope with the influx of holidaymakers, the tourism sector is still facing recruitment difficulties, but “overall the situation has improved compared to last year”, according to Arnaud Bennet. The president of Snelac is however cautious: “We will have to see how the season goes, there are still positions that are available in the sites”, he nuances, acknowledging that the situation is still tense in the restoration and the hotel industry.
