In its February 2015 edition, the economic observatory of Parisian tourism reported a decrease of foreign visits in the capital and its surroundings in 2014. However, the French clientele remains stable.
Paris continued to attract large numbers of visitors in 2014. Despite the crisis, the accommodations of Paris counted a total of 22.4 million hotel stays (-1.4%) during the year, according to the economic observatory of Parisian tourism.
The touristic sites in the capital have also been very successful. The Eiffel Tower notably beat its visitation record in 2014. The Louvre remains the most-visited museum in the world. However, the observatory noted a drop of 2% in regards to hotel stays in Paris, and a decrease of 1.8% in Greater Paris in December 2014 – a tendency which can be seen particularly amongst the European guests. Their inflow in the establishments of Greater Paris has receded by 4.3% compared to December 2013.
However, going into detail, great differences have been observed among different nationalities of the travelers. As such, the Spanish increased by 23.5% in December 2014; an increase which sits at 6.7% for the entire year. On the other hand, the Russian visitors decreased for the 9th consecutive month in December 2014, a reduction of 46.2%. In regards to the entire year, the clientele has withdrawn by 12.2% compared to 2013. The observatory has also recorded a decrease of 13.3% in German tourists coming to Paris in 2014.
Even the American visitors came in smaller numbers to Paris in 2014 – by -1.8%. The number even fell by 10.1% in the month of December 2014.
The annual decrease can be explained partly by the travelers coming from the United States: -0.4%. But despite all that, they have remained amongst the most plentiful guests in the past ten years.
In regards to this, the French visitors remained constant in 2014 (-0.1%), and even increased their visits slightly in December 2014, by +0.9%.
The residential hotels in Greater Paris have recorded an occupancy rate of 80.6%, an increase of 2.4% in 2014. For the hotels, the increase was only at 0.4, going up to 77.3%. The hotel RevPAR increased by 3.7%, going up to EUR105.20.