50.3 million visitors welcomed to Ile-de-France last year. 21.7 billion euros of recorded tourist receipts. 70.7 million hotel nights listed ... And a capital region which retains its place as the world's leading tourist destination ... The balance sheet for 2019 drawn up on Monday by the Regional Tourism Committee (CRT) is, in appearance, likely to to give a smile to the most pessimistic of professionals in the sector.
"Performance could have been better without the impact of various social movements"
The President of the Region, Valérie Pécresse, and that of the CRT, Eric Jeunemaitre, however, were careful not to be triumphant by detailing these figures on Monday. And this despite a slightly higher overall result - at least for the volume of arrivals - than that of 2018 which had been marked by a series of records. “These are good figures, given the particularly turbulent year that we have lived. But the performances could have been much better without the impact of various social movements ”, thus qualified Valérie Pécresse.
The very slight increase in the number of tourists coming to Ile-de-France (up 0.4% compared to 2018) hides, indeed, profound changes in the typology of the clientele received. The French clientele - which represented 18.8 million of the 35.4 million hotel arrivals recorded - thus very largely increased (+408,000 arrivals). “It is the clientele that we went to seek in priority after the movement of yellow vests. Because it is the easiest to bring back, "explain tourism professionals.
Fewer British and Chinese tourists
But at the same time, the same noted a decrease (slightly greater than the increase in “hexagonal” tourism) in hotel arrivals from international customers. With worrying indicators on two crucial markets for Ile-de-France tourism: the British, "significantly fewer than the previous year due to the uncertainties linked to Brexit", analyze the specialists. But also the Chinese, passed under the bar of a million visitors.
Nothing to do with the health crisis of the coronavirus, which started in 2020. "This drop in attendance last year is rather explained by the slowdown in economic activity in China," says Valérie Pécresse who recalls that the market for Chinese tourists is a "key" subject for the sector.
In 5th position among foreign tourists who choose the Ile-de-France destination (behind the Americans, the British, the Germans and the Spaniards), the Chinese are back in second place in the ranking ... in terms of spending.
The Louvre at the head, in front of Versailles
Is this a consequence of the change of "tourist robot carrier"? The ranking of the most visited sites has also changed. Notre-Dame (which welcomed 12 million annual visitors) has obviously left the ranking since the fire on April 15, 2019.
But the Louvre museum, which replaced it in first place, lost 5% of its visitors (i.e. 600,000 admissions) in 2019 compared to the previous year. The Versailles estate (Yvelines), the only site outside Paris to be included in the “top ten”, experienced almost stable attendance (+ 0.9%).
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"This assessment comes against a background of real uncertainty about the impact of the coronavirus on the tourism economy," insists Valérie Pécresse. If it is still too early to measure the effects, the CRT has already noted a worrying indicator. That of air bookings from China for February, March and April. It has already plunged by 60% compared to the same period a year ago.
Seasonal rentals are nibbling market share
Last year, Ile-de-France hoteliers "sold" 492,000 fewer nights than in 2018. For their part, lessors of tourist accommodation or seasonal rentals recorded 752,000 nights of more ! These two figures illustrate the growing weight of seasonal rental platforms in the tourism industry.
The Regional Tourism Committee - to which Airbnb, Homeaway and Abritel (the 3 main players in the sector) communicated “for the first time” booking figures - assesses their market share at more than 13%. "The number of reservations in this type of accommodation has increased by 7.6% in one year", specifies the regional committee of tourism.