The Paris deputy mayor in charge of tourism is ‘sounding the alarm’ about increasing visitor numbers, especially of young party-loving tourists, since the Paris Olympics.
Tourism in Paris is nothing new – the city welcomes between 35 million and 40 million visitors a year and has some of the most-visited tourist attractions in the world including the Eiffel Tower (7 million visitors per year) and the Louvre (10 million visitors per year).
But those already impressive numbers seem to have received a post-Olympics boost with Frédéric Hocquard, the Paris deputy mayor in charge of tourism and the night-time economy, saying that the city has seen a significant post-Olympics bounce, with provisional figures showing a 5-10 percent increase on previous years.
He added that the Olympics also seems to have changed the profile of visitors – previously tourists to Paris largely comprised of family groups or people wanting to visit cultural sites, this year has seen a big increase in younger visitors interested in nightlife and entertainment.
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This year’s Fête de la musique in Paris was much busier than usual, which organisers think was partly due to British and American influencers promoting the event in advance to their followers as ‘France’s best all-night party’.
The Paris Olympics opening ceremony and the Games vibe of ‘Paris est un fête’ (Paris is a party) is credited with making the city a cooler destination for younger visitors.
While welcoming the interest, Hocquard told French newspaper Libération that he believed the time had come to better regulate Paris tourism, or risk rejection from locals and possibly the type of anti-tourism protests seen in Spain and Italy.
While remaining the world’s most-visited tourist destination, France has so far managed to avoid the protests against over-tourism seen around Europe.
READ ALSO: How has France avoided Europe’s anti-tourism protests?
He told the paper: “Paris is usually more of a family tourist destination, but we’ve had an influx of young, party-loving tourists this year.
“The rules of tourism have been turned upside down. Now it’s a mix of Fête de la Musique and Fashion Week.
“For several months now, in certain places, we’ve been seeing tourists who say they’ve come to see a particular artist. When they’re in Paris, they no longer just go to clubs for their last night out.
“And for the first time, we’ve had tourists coming in droves during the first half of August. My question now is: will we see the same phenomenon for the rest of the year?”
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He added: “I am sounding the alarm because Paris has been a tourist destination for a very long time – but I am not sure we have the capacity to absorb an increase in visitor numbers.
“We are starting to see congestion in the centre of Paris. If we are not careful and do not regulate tourism after the Olympics, we risk the population rejecting tourists. We are not there yet, but we are asking for regulation.”
His solution is twofold – better regulation of certain tourist-related activities and a wider spread of tourists so they are not all staying in the same small area of central Paris.
He said: “We need regulation – we need to get tourist coaches out of the city and have fewer flight slots.
“We also need to spread the load across the greater Paris area – the city centre is saturated.
“We work a lot with [the suburban département] Seine-Saint-Denis. The development of cycling also helps with this. On foot, you don’t go two kilometres from your hotel, but by bike, it’s easier to get around. It’s also a question of public service, both in terms of transport and ensuring cleanliness. Apart from business tourism, we are no longer in the business of conquering new markets.
“In short, we are no longer promoting Paris, and we are starting to regulate.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
