France

Over the past month, France has seen a steady rise in the number of cases of covid-19 on its territory. A situation that has the authorities worried. As early as July, an upsurge in contamination due to the arrival of tourists led to the compulsory wearing of masks in the open air in seaside resorts such as Argeles, Biscarosse, Cancale, Honfleur,...

"The shock to our industry is unprecedented and unprecedentedly violent". Sébastien Bazin, CEO of Accor, can't help but notice the impact of the pandemic on tourism in general, and on his hotel group in particular. Indeed, for the first half of the year, revenue per room (RevPAR) fell by...

COVID-19 weighed heavily on the Air France-KLM group's results in the first half of 2020. The number of passengers carried collapsed (-62% in the first half of 2020) while capacity fell by 53% for the group (including -89% in the second quarter alone). [link-block prefix="See also:" post="90597"] The losses are therefore...

Air France is gaining momentum at Orly by resuming services to Nice as well as Biarritz and Montpellier. On the latter two routes, however, it will have to rely on the return of EasyJet. This August, EasyJet is launching a regular service between Paris airport and Biarritz and Montpellier. The decision...

The date for the reopening of the Hôtel Barrière Le Westminster in Le Touquet is now known. This jewel in the crown of the Hauts-de-France seaside resort will reopen its doors on 25 September following a major renovation programme which began in December last year. Although the work was initially scheduled to last six months, it has taken a little longer in...

In the same way as Japan Airlines (JAL), which relaunched its Paris service on 1 July, All Nippon Airways (ANA) will be resuming its Paris-Tokyo route. From 1 August, the Japanese carrier will initially offer two weekly flights on Wednesdays and Saturdays. While the timetables will be the same as before...

How did Adagio cope with the period of confinement? Karim Malak - Just over 70% of our aparthotels closed during this period. On a positive note, this also means that 30 % of our residences continued to operate. In towns where we have several establishments, we were unable to...

The Air France group's restructuring plan today confirms the closure of some of its domestic routes, in order to meet the target of reducing capacity on the French domestic network by 40% by the end of 2021. This was one of the conditions laid down by the French government for financial support totalling seven billion euros, of which...

26 June will mark the reopening of Orly airport, which has been closed since the end of March. Terminal 3 will welcome 130 daily flights instead of the 650 flights on the platform as a whole. Services will be provided to Corsica, a dozen Schengen countries including Portugal and Greece, as well as the French overseas territories, i.e. the...

SNCF and Spanish rail operator Renfe have announced the reintroduction of high-speed services between France and Spain on 1 July. From that date onwards, two trains a day will run in each direction from Paris and Marseille to Figueras, Girona and Barcelona, with other French cities...

Will the new phase of decontamination announced on Sunday by the French President speed up the recovery of your hotels? Franck Gervais - Today, half of our hotels in France are open. And we're reopening at a significant rate, with 70% of our hotels worldwide expected to have opened by the end of the year.

Three weeks after decontamination, do you already feel that business is picking up? Olivier Cohn - It's still rather tentative, but a momentum is building. The recovery is gathering pace week by week. Admittedly, we are still a long way from the booking levels recorded in 2019, since we are only 45% away from what we were doing last year...

It's time for Lyon airport to start operating again, with the gradual reopening of flights to business and leisure destinations. Since 8 June, Air France has resumed domestic flights to Nantes, Bordeaux and Toulouse, in addition to the KLM flight to the Amsterdam hub. The Air France group...

Stay at home... but with us. In the current context, with their intermediate offer between traditional hotels and flat rental, hotel residences could undoubtedly reappropriate the flagship slogan of confinement. "We are convinced that the hotel apartment concept can reassure hesitant or cautious travellers, giving them greater independence and a sense of security.

While the government has just unveiled the details of the second phase of deconfinement - and the return to mobility in France and then Europe - Nice airport is doing the sums. And at a time when many players in the travel industry are counting their losses and waves of redundancies, this is yet another...

And that's ten for Okko Hotels. The lifestyle and business brand has reached the milestone of ten establishments with the addition of a new address in the heart of Toulon, briefly unveiled before the lock-up, but which opens its doors in full on 2 June. For business travellers passing through the Var, the location...

The Lodge & Spa Collection is getting ready to unveil its new jewel, the fourth from this group specialising in luxury mountain hotels. Accustomed to naming its establishments after the biggest diamonds in the world, such as Koh-I Nor in Val Thorens, Taj-I Mah in Arc 2000 and Daria-I Nor in...

How did the Wojo sites cope with this period of confinement? Stéphane Bensimon - Our sites remained accessible during the lockdown, but without reception or catering services. However, very few people visited our sites, or just popped in to collect their things. That's all in the past...

Masks compulsory, one train out of two for daily journeys before rapidly increasing to three out of four, a limited number of TGVs: as information is given to the various national newspapers, the SNCF is setting out its transport plan for the period after 11 May. While travel will remain limited to 100...

Will the conference and seminar business pick up as expected after the summer? Philippe Augier - For the moment, all events have either been cancelled or postponed. Will events be able to resume in September? A lot will depend on the health conditions in which the events can be organised. At present, we have no visibility. However, the health aspect...