Tourism: the Covid-19 cost France 61 billion euros in revenue in 2020

The Covid-19 pandemic caused tourism receipts to fall by 41%, to 89 billion euros, in France last year, or 61 billion euros in shortfall for the sector, announced Friday the secretary of 'State to tourism.

"

This year 2020 has been a shock, it is more than 60 billion euros of receipts which are missing for the French tourism

", declared on France 2 the Secretary of State for Tourism Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne.

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According to estimates from Atout France, which promotes France abroad, the health crisis last year plummeted domestic revenues by 29 billion euros (-48%) and those generated by international travelers by 32 billion. (-52%).

Domestic tourism consumption, estimated at around 180 billion euros - including 30 billion euros of consumption in second homes - or 7.4% of national GDP, has thus fallen by around a third, due to a lack of passenger flows, the pandemic having paralyzed air traffic and reduced travel, both leisure and business.

No charge on late cancellations

“

France has been more resilient than other global destinations: the engine of European tourism worked well last summer: we had a lot of local tourism, the Belgians, the Germans, the Dutch ... and especially the clientele French, which made a blue-white-red summer and autumn

, ”said the minister.

And, "

if on January 20, we are able to offer activities, we will have to focus on our mountains,

" he continued.

The professionals of the hotel and catering industry are committed "

not to take costs on late cancellations,

" said Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, while the ski lifts will remain closed until the end of January due to a situation degraded health.

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Geographically, the fall in international tourism receipts strongly hit Ile-de-France (-23.1 billion euros) but also the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regions (-7.2 billion euros), Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (-6.7 billion), Occitanie (-4.5 billion) and Nouvelle Aquitaine (-4.1 billion).

The shortfall amounted to 2.6 billion euros for Hauts-de-France, 2 billion for Brittany like the Pays de la Loire, or even 800 million for Corsica.

European customers, which generated 69% of tourism revenue in France in 2019, rose to 81% last year.

For 2021, Atout France expects 111 billion euros in tourism revenue, which would represent a 25% rebound compared to 2020 (+ 48% for international customers and + 16% for domestic customers).