American tourists: 2008 or the black year

“The desire for Paris is still alive,” assures Paul Roll, director of the Office of Tourism and Congress of Paris (OTCP). But this year fewer Americans have been wandering the streets of Montmartre and Saint-Germain des Près, to visit our museums and shop in the luxury and souvenirs boutiques in Paris and the French Riviera. These destinations suffered from a weak dollar against the euro and fuel surcharges combined with the economic crisis that began in the United States already at the end of 2007. To add insult to injury, the American presidential elections tended to slow travel making many Americans prefer to stay at home to follow the campaigns of Barack Obama and John McCain.In the end, USA-France tourist relations resemble a rollercoaster ride marked by regular crises such as in 1993-1995, after 9-11 and, more recently, in 2003 with the second Gulf War. It is now up to professionals to brace themselves until better days come along, hoping that the new markets will resist so that the tourism sector on the whole doesn’t fall ill in 2009…According to the figures at the OTCP observatory, the monthly decrease reached 20% until the end of August in comparison with 2007. Only September –one of Americans’ favorite months in Paris- held up better, dropping by “only” 11%. The number one foreign clientele in Paris until 2007, Americans were dethroned by the British this year. “We should come close to 1.2 million American hotel arrivals versus 1.5 million in 2007,” estimates Paul Roll. The record figure in 2000 with 2 million tourists from Uncle Sam’s country now seems like a distant dream. “Paris has become expensive for Americans, and the wealthy East Coast clientele are not the only ones who visit our country,” analyses Jacques Alonso, general manager France for American Airlines...