“We are almost identical to 2019,” Didier Arino, managing director of the Protourisme firm, told AFP.
He estimates that overall the number of overnight stays in hotels has increased by 2% compared to before the pandemic, while turnover has increased by 17%.
The trend is also on the rise for campsites or furnished rentals, according to him.
The summer was a “very good season”, confirms to AFP Solange Escure, national director of Gîtes de France. Occupancy rates have steadily climbed to reach 86% in August (6 points compared to 2019). “Between July 23 and August 20, the rates were even 100%,” she adds.
“We are on track for 2022 to be better than 2019” which was already a record year, rejoices Nicolas Dayot, president of the national federation of outdoor hotels (FNHPA). The FNHPA expects to reach 130 million overnight stays for the whole of 2022, one million more than in 2019.
“It’s a great summer, a record summer,” SNCF Voyageurs CEO Christophe Fanichet told AFP. The company will have transported 23 million passengers in July and August on the TGV and Intercités in France. With the international (Thalys, Eurostar, links to Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Spain), the world figure to 28 million. “It makes overall 10% more travelers compared to the summer of 2019”, according to him.
Paris has benefited from the return of foreigners, especially Americans. The Paris Convention and Visitors Bureau estimates that 9.9 million tourists visited the capital from the beginning of June to the end of August (-3.5% compared to 2019).
But the favorite destination remains the coast, “especially the Mediterranean coast but we also have very good performances in Normandy and on the Atlantic coast – except for the part affected by the fires”, according to Didier Arino.
– Abandoned rural destinations –
Hotels in the PACA region have almost regained their 2019 occupancy rate despite prices increasing by more than 30%, as has Normandy where the price increase is less strong, between 10 and 15%, according to the company. MKG Consulting.
The coast, “which in a normal year represents 50% of attendance”, “is a hit”, according to the president of the FNHPA. “The first two weeks of July being less expensive, they filled up well and the month of August, which usually represents 38% of total activity”, progressed, he adds, taking the example of Brittany where 77% of campsites say they “have done better than in 2019”.
“It was more complicated for the mountains and certain rural destinations like the Dordogne”, underlines Didier Arino. Inland territories “like the Gers or the Dordogne”, rediscovered during the Covid by the French who usually went abroad, have not found the “same dynamic”, confirms Nicolas Dayot, “we feel that this summer these tourists went abroad”.
Jean-Pierre Mas, president of Entreprises du Voyage notes compared to 2019 “a slight drop in the number of departures in July-August of around 5%, but an increase in budgets of 23%” for stays “on average extended by almost a day”.
Those who stayed in France also enjoyed themselves since the leisure parks were full this summer. With 750,000 to 800,000 visitors in July-August, Parc Astérix experienced 20% growth compared to 2019, François Fassier, director of the Compagnie des Alpes parks, told AFP. The progression is much the same for the Futuroscope, according to him and the smallest structures of the group such as the Walibi park or the Grévin museum have also progressed compared to 2019.
Disneyland Paris does not communicate a figure but assures AFP that it had “a very positive dynamic” this summer.
