“The photographers did a great job. The pictures of Paris in flames or the Champs-Elysées under smoke bombs, which have gone around the world, have had a catastrophic effect on the image of Paris. My American clients, seeing the rides of yellow vests in the streets, have the feeling that we are in a war zone, ”laments the manager of the Marquis Faubourg Saint-Honoré, a luxury hotel.
Like a lot of other hotels and shops, this one was locked in the high security sector near the Elysée (8th), during previous Yellow Vests demonstrations. For the manager, it is already a guaranteed loss of 30% of its turnover. “And reservations for the coming months which will take time to leave”.
In the hotel sector, a sensitive witness to the impact on foreign visitors, the effect was immediate with a 50% drop in reservations from the start of the crisis. “Parisian palaces, which have made heavy investments over the past five years, only have between 40 and 50% occupancy rates. Some floors are even completely closed, ”regrets Didier Chenet, president of the National Group of Independent Hotel-Restaurants (GIN).
“It’s falling to the worst, while the tourism sector was recovering from the dark period of the attacks of 2015, that we had in 2018 a good dynamic of recovery”, estimates Vanguelis Panayotis, president of MKG councils.
The upscale streets particularly affected
Most large hotels can be satisfied to have had their facades spared until now. This is not the case for nearly 500 Parisian businesses which were ransacked and looted. The map of vandalized sectors, listed by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Paris (CCIP), puts in red the upscale streets of the capital, around the 8th, 9th, 16th or 17th arrondissements. For these, serious estimates predict a fall of 20 to 30% in turnover.
December 20, 2018, in Paris. On several occasions, the stores had to close on the sidelines of the Yellow Vests demonstrations. LP/Olivier Boitet
Small independent businesses were the first victims. Department stores, too, are doing their accounts. The closure imposed by the prefecture on December 8 represented a loss of 5 million euros for Galeries Lafayette. The shortfall at Printemps is 10% for a store that generates one billion euros in sales over a year.
Even the Hôtel de Ville is planning a repair and cleaning budget of 5 million with its exposed cobblestones, its panels torn off, its electrical networks attacked. And this is perhaps only a stage point: while an act VII threatens for this Saturday. And that on Facebook, the Yellow Vests are already inviting themselves to the Champs for the New Year’s Eve of December 31. Can the January sales be spared? This will be an important test of recovery.