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Without tourists, no hope: French hotels in great difficulty

2020-08-01T04:58:16.308Z


In the absence of long-haul aircraft customers and with the cancellation of trade fairs and festivals, hotels are half empty.


With 89 million international tourists in 2018, France is the world's leading tourist destination. Since the start of the Covid-19 epidemic, an entire sector has suffered. Terribly. The 5 million French people who used to leave France for the holidays and who have revised their 2020 projects in the tricolor sauce will not compensate for the loss caused by the interruption of long-haul flights, the stopping of seminars and trade fairs, postponement of festivals.

According to the Banque de France, the accommodation business only recovered by 25% in June. In its economic report published earlier this month, it expected 40% of activity only in July. The sector is struggling, far behind other service activities which will regain on average 80% of their usual activity during this first summer month.

The French only represent 15% of hotel guests

For hotels in particular, it's a disaster. “They generally receive barely 15% of French tourists,” notes Didier Arino, director of the Protourisme research firm. French customers go to hotels very little, they tend to go to furnished accommodation, campsites, holiday villages… ”Result: many receptions deserted this summer. When it is not the door of the hotel that has remained closed.

According to data collected by the specialist firm MKG, the occupancy rate of hotels in France between July 1 and July 25 is 52.8%. Down almost 25 points from last year. In reality, the situation is much worse than one in two empty rooms. Because the calculation only takes into account open establishments. And not all hotels have resumed, far from it, hoping for a rebound in activity and planning a reopening in September. "For a hotel to reach the point of equilibrium, it often requires at least 60% occupancy," said Didier Arino. Below, it costs them more to open than to remain closed. "

Bad almost everywhere, the situation is catastrophic in Paris, the world's leading tourist city, in the major cities of France and all places extremely dependent on international tourism. Around the Disneyland Paris theme park, one in six hotels is open. In Lourdes, it is barely one in three.

The English Channel and the Atlantic are resisting

Side attendance, same observation. If the hotels on the Atlantic Coast, Brittany and the Channel are resisting and record similar occupancy rates in July 2019 - respectively 80%, 68% and 76% in open hotels according to figures from MKG - the Coast d'Azur and Ile-de-France collapse: -19% and -35%. It's even - 53% if we only take the capital.

"We are more and more on day-to-day reservations," notes Laurent Duc de l'Umih, the leading union in the branch with more than half of the 18,000 French hotels represented. The professional also notices disparities according to the classification: “Overall, the 2 or 3 stars are doing better than the palaces. The problem is that the latter, currently at a standstill, are locomotives in terms of money and employment. "A palace employs three times more people per room than a low-end hotel," recalls Didier Arino.

So many elements that give rise to fear for the whole profession of even more difficult tomorrow. The government has certainly just extended the partial unemployment measures until December for the hotel industry and Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, Secretary of State for Tourism has announced the reopening of the salons.

30% of establishments could close permanently

But for specialists, the sector is on the brink of disaster. “Seminars, conferences and exhibitions represent 34 billion euros (billion €) for France, points out Didier Arino. We will probably lose between € 15 and € 20 billion in this segment in 2020. At the end of July, tourism had already lost € 50 billion in France alone. It is estimated that at least 200,000 jobs will be lost by the end of the year out of a total of two million. But, without state aid, this could have been 500,000 direct jobs lost, and as many indirect ones. "

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Regarding the hotels only, Laurent Duc de l'Umih estimates at 30% the number of establishments which could permanently close their doors this year: 15% which could have closed before the crisis and which were kept on a drip, and 15% directly weakened by the coronavirus crisis.

Source: leparis

All business articles on 2020-08-01

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