Was it Parisians who explicitly told tourists not to come to Paris during the Summer Olympics?
Or are the rising costs of hotel rooms, home rentals and event tickets driving tourists away?
Despite predictions that a travel boom was almost certain, many people in Paris, including locals, were avoiding the city for a variety of reasons before the Olympics, and predictions tend to focus on the number of people expected to attend the Olympics, ignoring the number of tourists who dislike the Olympics.
John Grant, principal analyst at aviation information company OAG, said it’s a common misconception that host cities see a surge in travellers around the Olympics.
“The thing about the Olympics is that the local market doesn’t move,” he said. “The normal business travelers who normally travel at that moment… [and] I am at home.”
Grant noted that London, Athens and Atlanta all saw declines in summer tourism during the Summer Olympics.
“You never get the results or the outcomes you expect,” he said.
Major airlines suffer huge losses
Air France flagged the problem earlier this month, announcing on July 1 that flights to and from Paris were delayed compared to other major European cities. Not only has interest declined, but “there is a significant avoidance of Paris in international markets,” the company said.
Similarly, Delta Airlines It also expects to take a significant hit to revenue of more than $100 million as a direct result of the Summer Olympics reducing travel to France.
“People aren’t going to Paris unless they’re there for the Olympics,” CEO Ed Bastian told CNBC.
Mr Grant said this wasn’t a surprise.
Neither airline has significantly increased capacity since last August — Air France has increased it by 5% and Delta has none — and instead the losses are related to pricing, he said.
“Airlines have held back from selling fares at prices higher than market demand would support,” he said, adding that airlines eventually lowered those fares to try to make some extra revenue.
In its June tourism indicator, the Paris Tourist Board predicted that international air traveller numbers in all markets in the run up to the Olympics will be down 8% in June and nearly 15% in July compared to 2023.
The tourism board also expects visitor numbers to increase by 11% during the Olympics, driven by an increase in visitors from Europe (+24%) and North America (+15%), but this will be offset by sharp declines in visitor numbers from the Middle East (-42%) and Oceania (-30%).
Empty Airbnbs and unsold tickets
The hotel industry has also been hit hard by Paris’ summer slowdown, with occupancy rates expected to fall to 60% in early July, around 10 percentage points lower than in 2023, according to the Paris Tourism Board.
Like airlines, many hotels raised prices to capitalize on the increase in tourism, only to lower them when spring bookings fell.
Still, the average price rose nearly 70 percent in July this year, from 202 euros last year to 342 euros during the Olympics, the Paris Tourist Board said. Travel price comparison site Trivago estimates prices have risen even further, by 85 percent year-on-year in Paris and 131 percent in Lille, which will host some of the Olympic basketball and handball events.
OAG’s John Grant said not all airlines were hurt by the Summer Olympics, citing Ryanair as a “winner” as it significantly increased capacity to Paris this summer.
Jakub Polzycki | Nurphoto | Getty Images
Airbnb hosts are also slashing their prices, some by more than 50%. A two-bedroom loft near Notre Dame Cathedral dropped its nightly rate from $1,407 to $683 during the first week of the Olympics, cheaper than the nightly rate in the fall.
Airbnb said the number of accommodation listings in Paris hit a record high this summer as enterprising Parisians jumped at the chance to take advantage of the spending habits of sports visitors while escaping the crowds.
Airbnb told CNBC that tens of thousands of people in host cities have opened their homes to the public for the first time, but the company declined to say how many properties went unbooked during the Olympics, instead telling CNBC Travel that “The Paris 2024 Olympics is on track to be Airbnb’s largest hosted event ever, with more guests staying in local homes on our platform than at any previous event.”
Airbnb also said that “domestic interest” in staying during the Olympics has never been higher than in the weeks leading up to the Paris Olympics.
“The Olympics are too broad”
Tickets for the Paris Games are still available for last-minute travelers: Paris 2024’s press office told CNBC that of the 10 million tickets planned for sale, 8.95 million had been sold or allocated as of Thursday.
A Financial Times analysis found that with a glut of overpriced tickets and few buyers, even more are available on a growing resale market.
In an era of “sports tourism” and event- and experience-driven travel, it may seem surprising that a premier international competition featuring the world’s best athletes competing in one of the most popular cities has not led to an increase in tourist numbers to the host city.
But not for Grant.
“The Olympics is too broad, it’s not a specific sport,” he said. “You can win a gold medal in tennis, but it’s not Wimbledon.”
He also said there were too many events.
“I can’t say the quality isn’t good. [but] It’s just too common.”
—CNBC’s Zenith Wong contributed to this report.
Disclosure: CNBC’s parent company, NBCUniversal, owns NBC Sports and NBC Olympics, which holds the U.S. broadcast rights to all Summer and Winter Olympic Games through 2032.
