One week after the beginning of the strike, the impact on tourism activities is evident. Travellers have been significantly affected by the current situation in transportation and this has led to many cancellations of hotel bookings. People prefer to postpone their travel date in hopes that the disturbances will stop. By our partner MKG Consulting.

December had got off to a good start for French hoteliers with an increase in occupancy over the first 3 days, whether in the capital or in the provinces, but from the day before the strikes were underway, occupancy rates began to decline. On Thursday, December 5, the hotel industry in the Ile-de-France region posted a 10 point decline compared to last year to reach and an occupancy rate that was below 70%, whereas normally occupancy is over 80%.

There was slight improvement over the weekend, suggesting that mainly business customers had anticipated the strikes by postponing their stay. (see Graph 1 Evolution of attendance since December 1).

In the provinces, not all cities have been affected in the same way. While cities such as Bordeaux, Nice and Reims show stable levels of traffic compared to last year, Strasbourg, with its Christmas market, Rouen and Nantes, show a 10 percentage point drop in their occupancy rates. For their part, Lyon's hoteliers were also strongly impacted during the Fête des Lumières (4.7 points drop in patronage). Indeed, while the number of visitors is stable compared to the previous edition, the train strike prevented many tourists not living in the Lyon area from coming to stay in the capital of the Gauls (see Graph 2 Cumulative trend in occupancy from December 4 to 11).

Professionals awaiting union decisions

Over the next few days, the booking situation in the capital shows that the second half of December should be slightly better than last year, provided that the situation does not worsen and that the tide of cancellations is stopped. It is important to note that last year at this time the yellow vests movement had started and was already beginning to impact the hotel business.