Some tourists are back in Paris, but businesses just 'scraping by'

Record ID: 1625190

  • Title: Some tourists are back in Paris, but businesses just 'scraping by'
  • Date: 6th July 2021
  • Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (JULY 2, 2021) (REUTERS) PEOPLE IN THE STREET / EIFFEL TOWER IN THE BACKGROUND EIFFEL TOWER SOUVENIRS TOURISTS IN THE STREET VARIOUS OF PARIS TOURIST BOAT PARIS SIGHTSEEING BUS (SOUNDBITE) (French) VENDOR WORKING FOR OF PARIS SIGHTSEEING BUS COMPANY 'BIG BUS', CHRISTOPHE CROMPIN, SAYING : "Last year it was the opposite: we had less and less work until the poi
  • Embargoed: 20th July 2021 11:35
  • Keywords: France Paris industry tourism
  • Location: PARIS, FRANCE
  • City: PARIS, FRANCE
  • Country: France
  • Topics: Europe,Society/Social Issues
  • Reuters ID: LVA001EKPC75Z
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Tourists, mainly from Europe and the United States are back in Paris, offering a glimmer of hope for businesses that rely on the influx of travellers to one of the world's most visited cities.
    The flow of tourists to Paris, many of them from Asia and the U.S., dried up almost completely last year when the COVID-19 pandemic struck and governments around the world imposed travel restrictions.
    Now, with infection rates falling, France is gradually easing restrictions. A mandate requiring people to wear masks outdoors has been dropped, and a night-time curfew was rescinded.
    Christophe Crompin sells tickets for a sight-seeing tour company called Big Bus. The company's operations came to a halt in October 2020 until a few days ago, but now, Crompin works just one or two days a week.
    "We had less and less work until the point where the office told us we would stop. Now, it seems the situation has changed and it's going in the opposite direction, and that's why I'm allowing myself to feel a bit more optimistic," he said.
    In the picturesque neighbourhood of Montmartre, near the Sacre Coeur basilica, Xavier Dangueger, who owns the restaurant Chez Ma Cousine (At My Cousin's), said that tourists are starting to return, but that business is only at 20 percent of what it was in 2019.
    "We are starting to scrape by, but only to scrape by. I can't say we are working. Working is when I am sweating from morning till night and bringing back all my employees to work full-time," he said.
    Paris Tourism Office director Corinne Menegaux said the City of Light used to welcome 10 million tourists during the summer months. In 2020, the figure dropped to 2 million, but Menegaux said her office hopes it will rise to 5 million this year.
    Menegaux's office said tourism accounted for about 6.5 percent of the greater Paris region's economy in 2019.
    (Production: Clotaire Achi, Elodie Bernollin, Anthony Paone, Emilie Delwarde, Yiming Woo)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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