On the Côte d'Azur, Nice reached hotel occupancy levels at the beginning of August almost comparable to those of 2019, largely thanks to French customers and in particular Parisians, Mayor Christian Estrosi said on Wednesday.
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The global Covid-19 pandemic has deeply affected international travel for months, and by extension the flows of foreign tourists on the Mediterranean coast in particular. " On the first fifteen days of August, for Nice, the hotel occupancy rate was 88%, 4.6 points less than in 2019, " said the elected official.
"A summer season in sharp decline"
However, as in July Nice had only filled its hotels up to 51.1%, and only up to 14% in June, Christian Estrosi mentions in total for his city " a summer season in sharp decline ". According to him, in the absence of the traditional Asian, Russian or American clientele, it is “ mainly ” French tourists, and “ a little ” Europeans - Belgians, Swiss, Germans, Dutch and Italians in particular - who made it possible to fill city hotels.
Christian Estrosi also underlined, based on the figures of attendance of local tourist offices, the good health this summer of the " high country ", an area which includes in particular the Mercantour National Park. During the first fifteen days of August, the deficit of visitors in the tourist offices of the high country was only 6% compared to last year, against 50% for the average country and 59% for the littoral.