Interview with : Amélie Déchénais, Manager of the Convention Bureau Bordeaux

How do you explain the popularity of Bordeaux today?

Amélie Déchénais - The city's attractiveness is the result of work begun some fifteen years ago. Bordeaux has entered a virtuous circle, starting with the cleaning up of the facades behind which we discovered an extremely rich heritage. In fact, this is what led to the Unesco classification. Then there was the redevelopment of the quays to reopen the city to the river, which for a long time had turned its back on it and closed in on itself. At the same time, three tramway lines were installed and a fourth is currently under construction. From then on, we were ready to welcome visitors and show them the best that Bordeaux has to offer.

Is the infrastructure sufficient to meet demand?

A. D. - On the business side, we're likely to be breaking all records between now and 2018-2020. As for the leisure sector, the destination is starting to overflow, particularly in the hotel sector. It's not for nothing that in Bordeaux, the number of accommodation units offered by Airbnb is almost equivalent to the number of hotels. We have gone from 1.5 million tourists in 2012 to 6 million in 2016. That's an extremely sharp increase. To stay at this level, or even continue to grow, we had to resize our infrastructure. This is currently being done with various hotel projects.

Do the people of Bordeaux feel at home in this new city?

A. D. - In the past, the people of Bordeaux often heard negative things about their city. Today, the local population is proud to live in one of the most beautiful cities in France, recognised as such by several international rankings. We're building on this pride, but the tourist office is being vigilant: we don't want this influx of visitors to lead to them being rejected by the locals, as in Barcelona, for example.