Attendance at hotels and campsites increased slightly this summer season in France. With significant disparities all the same: Paris is doing very well, but not the Alps or the Pyrenees.
The number of tourists staying in tourist accommodation in France increased by 1.3% during the summer season, according to INSEE's assessment. It's quite positive for hotels and campgrounds, but not all of them.
If we take out the Ile-de-France region, the figures are down. Paris and foreign customers clearly draw attendance upwards.
Ile-de-France is growing, all types of collective accommodation combined, by 7.7%. Overall attendance by foreign tourists increased by 4.3%, while that of the French stagnated at 0.1%.
At the beginning of the year, the French planned more to go on holiday.
Didier Arino explains why good intentions are not transformed into stumbling nights: “The wealthy French travelers have gone abroad more, while the peri-urban and rural customers have seen their holiday budget eaten away by the constraints of spending. These were the premises of the "yellow vests" in a way. In addition, families saw their expenses increase in July, as the French team progressed well. It may seem harmless, but it affected the departures in August.”
The big disappointment of the summer is the high mountain massifs. Overall, attendance decreased by 6.8%. In the Alps, it is -7.9%. And this even though at the beginning of the summer season the professionals were anticipating a record summer.
There has been a significant decline in the number of French customers. It is rather ageing, and high mountains have difficulty attracting young people and families.
With changes in trends, many cases destination preferences change too. At the moment if the number of youth traveling to France is increasing then there's a reason for change in destination. A few youths always get out to try out the strenuous life, they would rather stay in the cities where the internet is stronger.