More than a million tourists are expected to spend their summer holidays in Paris during the 2024 Olympic Games that are set to be held in the city, a report by the Tourist Information Center, Explore France, reveals.
About 10,500 athletes, 4,400 para-athletes, 206 delegations and 39 competition sites in total are predicted to be present throughout the games that are set to take place from July 26 to August 11, which promise an entertaining and sporty summer for the tourists.
Besides Paris, or “the City of Light” as it is referred to sometimes, France will be celebrating the journey of the champions’ accomplishments with activities planned in several other French locations, including Marseille, Lille and even Tahiti.
“Open-air museum, exceptional natural landscapes, local and eco-responsible gastronomy, visitors could not have dreamed of a better setting to encourage future medal winners,” the report reads.
According to the German data platform, Statista, the number of visitor arrivals to Paris and the Île-de-France area almost doubled in 2022 compared to the previous year after dramatically decreasing with the start of the (COVID-19) pandemic.
The number of domestic and foreign visitors arriving in Paris and Île-de-France reached about 24.7 million and 19.4 million, respectively, compared to 2019’s peak, with 28.4 million domestic visitors and 22.2 million foreign ones.
In an earlier article by LuggageHero, regarding the nationality of visitors, the majority of visitors to Paris showed to come from the following countries:
- United States – 6.2 million
- The United Kingdom – 2.7 million
- Germany – 2.1 million
- China – 1.8 million
- Spain 1.8 million
- Italy – 1.5 million
- Japan – 1.1 million
A list of the most visited places in Paris was compiled based on the same research, listing Cathédrale Notre-Dame as the top destination with 12 million tourists, followed by Disneyland and Sacré-Cœur Basilica with 11 million each, the Louvre Museum (ten million) and the Palace of Versailles (8.1 million).
The last three places on the list were:
- Eiffel Tower (6.2 million)
- Pompidou Centre (3.5 million)
- Orsay Museum (3.3 million)
Overall, during the first quarter of the year alone, France’s tourism sector increased by 12.3 per cent. Domestic visitors spent a total of 2.1 million nights in hotel accommodation, marking a 7.7 per cent rise. Meanwhile, international visitors spent 4.8 million nights in such lodging, which means 55.8 per cent more than in the first quarter of 2022.
