The French hotel industry's excellent summer was long overdue. Already in 2020 and 2021, the summer period had come as a relief to professionals - Parisian hoteliers excepted - mired in an unprecedented health crisis. And, with the absence of border restrictions and the return of foreign customersAs a result, the situation could only get better in 2022.
In July, the consulting firm In Extenso predicted that the 2022 season would be "very good, and even better than 2019before the pandemic" . At the time of the Accor Group's results announcement, its CEO, Sébastien Bazin, also predicted that the summer was going to be "a very busy one". confirm "The positive trend seen in recent months.
Figures recently released by consulting firm MKGbased on data from July and the first 16 days of August, confirm this: " This summer, the country not only saw record temperatures, but also record tourist figures since the health crisis." . RevPAR, at 88 euros nationally, is in fact an increase of more than 22 % compared with summer 2019, the last summer not to have been affected by the pandemic.
The rise in average prices, which has been noticeable for several months, accelerated this summer, with tariff growth of +22% compared with 2019. But this is a new development, hotel occupancy is also almost back to where it was in 2019with occupancy rates just -1.2 pts lower. This is true in the provinces (-0.7 points compared to summer 2019), but even more so in Paris, where occupancy rates have exceeded pre-crisis levels (+0.3 points).
The driving force behind the French hotel industry, the french capital raises its game after two particularly difficult summers, when visitor numbers did not exceed 20% in 2020 and were barely above 40% in 2021. Thanks to the return of international customers, it is back in its usual waters, situated, according to MKG, at around 80% in summer 2019. All this was accompanied in July by a 35% rise in average prices, to conclude with RevPAR growth of 35%.
If travellers from Asia are still absent, American tourists have made a comeback in France this summer for top-of-the-range hotels, buoyed by a favourable euro/dollar exchange rate. Across the country as a whole, the five-star category recorded a +40.6% increase in results over the July-August period.
In the same way as Paris, the Provence-Alpes Côte d'Azur region, despite the absence of Russian customers, saw tourists returning to the Riviera. "Revenge travel The region recorded the biggest increase in aiding sales this summer, with RevPAR up +38.3% in July and visitor numbers +1.1 points higher than in 2019.
More generally, hotels in the French provinces reported an increase in RevPAR of +20.5% compared with the last summer before the pandemic. With visitor numbers almost identical to 2019, coastal destinations have seen a strong influx of visitors in July, whether in the south of the country, on the Atlantic coast, or in Brittany and Normandy, where hotel occupancy rose by 11.5 points over the two months.
Could it be the heatwave effect or the fear of fires, but it was non coastal destinations that were in the limelight in August, with a 0.7 point gain in visitor numbers compared with 2019. MKG notes that " although the French hotel industry in the southern half of France had already bounced back well last summer, this year, it was the regions in the northern half of France that recorded the strongest growth." . Grand Est, Hauts-de-France, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté: all these destinations were popular, especially with local foreign customers from Belgium, Holland and Germany.
This positive momentum should continue with the return of the business clientele. As Sébastien Bazin commented on Accor's results, announcing that autumn would be " solid with the return of major seminars and conferences" MKG's booking levels for the next few months look set to be very good. already higher than last year. " The trend is even more pronounced
marked in Ile-de-France" stresses the consultancy specialising in the hotel industry. For this region, the booking rate for September is in fact around 45%, and close to 30% for October.
