Attendance at Versailles " collapses " in the absence of foreign tourists, with only 10,000 visitors per day at the moment, three times less than usual, announced Wednesday Catherine Pégard, president of the public establishment of the castle of Versailles. “ Per day, we are around 10,000, more during the weekend, less during the week, because our visitors are almost exclusively French. We are gradually seeing foreigners, Germans, Dutch and some Italians coming in, ”Catherine Pégard said on RTL.
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Usually, the castle, which is 80% visited by foreigners, accommodates 30,000 people a day during this period, she said. " Financially, we do not find it at all ", she lamented, adding that the establishment which reopened to the public on June 6 had " lost 45 million " euros since confinement.
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" It gives us a lot to think about what we have to be, what we have to do, it is our whole model which, if I may say so, has collapsed ", she said, recalling that " of all history, the closure of the castle only occurred once, at the time of the declaration of the Second World War ”She however assured“ not to make savings ”on the personnel, so much for the approximately 1.000 employees of the castle than for the 20,000 other people " who work around " the site.
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The Louvre, the most visited museum in the world, for its part saw its attendance divided by four in July, with 10,000 visitors per day, a level however in line with the forecasts of its management.
