The Olympic Games have created an encouraging boost for the Greater Paris region, with a 20 percent year-on-year increase in tourist numbers between 24 and 27 July, according to initial figures from Choose Paris Region – the agency created to attract visitors to the Île-de-France region.
Alexandra Dublanche, president of Choose Paris Region, said on Friday, "the sporting performances and tourist numbers are extremely encouraging, bearing witness to the success of the event".
Choose Paris Region has also noted an eight percent increase in air arrivals between 23 July and 12 August compared to a year earlier, to 450,600 passengers.
Some 132,000 American tourists are already present – or expected to arrive – which represents almost 30 percent of international arrivals, followed by Canadians, Japanese, Germans and Spaniards.
"Initially forecast at between 10 and 12 percent, international visitors already account for 18 percent of people attending the Games – 82 percent of whom are French," the press release reads.
Americans top the bill
For the opening ceremony, the trend was reversed: of the 358,500 people counted on site between 6pm and midnight, 62 percent were international visitors – nearly a quarter of whom were Americans – and 38 percent were French visitors, two-thirds of whom were from the Greater Paris region.
According to Choose Paris Region, "the Games effect is accelerating [hotel] bookings in Paris Ile-de-France.
"The destination is now seeing peaks in visitor numbers approaching, or even exceeding, 80 percent during the period of the Olympic Games from 26 July to 11 August."
Visitors will spend on average of 389 euros per night on a hotel room in Paris between June and August 2024 – up by almost 25 percent on 2023 – and the average price of furnished accommodation and holiday lets in Paris will be 234 euros per night in July 2024 – up by 40 percent on July 2023.
Keep the cauldron flying?
The figures are good news for the region, despite complaints from Paris taxi drivers who are seeking state compensation for losses incurred by Olympic security restrictions and blocked roads across the city.
Speaking on Thursday, caretaker Prime Minister Gabriel Attal maintained that keeping the Olympic cauldron in the heart of the Tuileries Gardens after the Olympics – that's attached to a balloon that flies into the Parisian sky every night – "would be a great idea".
He added: "I am prime minister in charge of day-to-day affairs, so this type of decision will very probably be taken by my successor in conjunction with the city of Paris", Attal added, predicting that Paris 2024 would have "very strong spin-offs in terms of tourism and...the economy in the years to come."
