Hotels in Paris recorded 88% in occupancy, over 80% in Bordeaux, with the rest being similar in the major French cities: the results presented by In Extenso Tourism, Culture and Hospitality (TCH) for the month of September confirm the return of business travellers to French hotels.
After a successful summer in terms of leisure activities, September saw events such as Fashion Week in Paris, IPEM, which brought together private equity professionals in Cannes, and the Echo Cardio day and Cobaty conference in Bordeaux. accelerated positive momentum. " The good performance achieved by the French hotel industry since the start of the year continued in September. Professionals were expecting the return of the business class to French hotels, boosted by a large number of events." commented Olivier PetitPartner at In Extenso TCH.
While a proportion of leisure customers were still staying in hotels in September - with In Extenson noting " more and more holidaymakers choosing to go away at the start of the new school year "In fact, it was business travellers in particular who contributed to the general upturn, notably international customers making a comeback. In the Paris region, for example, international events welcomed 25% of foreign visitors, significantly more than in 2019 (13%).
On the strength of this, the occupancy rate reached 74% nationally, three points better than in August and only two points below the level achieved in 2019. As room rates have long since exceeded this ceiling (+14% vs September 2019 for an average price of €117), the overall result is sales up 11% in September alone compared with 2019, and by 6% over the first nine months of the year. France, like the United Kingdom (+6%) and Ireland (+8%), is one of the European countries where the hotel industry has been able to find the resources to exceed its pre-pandemic performance, unlike Germany (-21%), Belgium (-19%) and Spain (-9%).
Based on the figures from its partner STRIn Extenso also notes that Paris is the European capital that " is experiencing the strongest rebound since the Covid-19 crisis "With an increase in revenue per room of 18% compared to 2019. With Dublin (+5%), it is even the only one of Europe's major capitals to post better results than the pre-covid periodThe hotel sector in London (-3%), but especially in Madrid, Barcelona and Berlin (-10%) and even more so in Brussels (-25%) is still struggling.
While Paris has regained its role as the driving force behind the French hotel industry, the other French cities and regions are also benefiting from this positive momentum, with an occupancy rate of 79% in September on the Côte d'Azur, and 71% for the other regions, all of which have returned to occupancy levels almost equivalent to 2019 (-1%). " The trend is set to continue towards the end of the yearOlivier Petit predicts, even if certain factors need to be closely monitored: the rise in inflation with the fall in tourists' purchasing power, and the rise and shortage in the energy sector, which could limit travel.s ".
