Opening ceremony lights up Paris in unique style

I’m cheering from the banks of the Seine in a plastic rain poncho, my dress soaked and loafers sloshing. The rain has not let up once during the four-hour Opening Ceremony, but as we watch boatloads of beaming athletes float past us one by one waving their national flags, my smile could not be wider. By the time the evening comes to an end, Celine Dion is belting Hymne a l'amour from a glittering Eiffel Tower—some in the crowd cry, others dance, or FaceTime family—and a contagious sense of universal joy ripples across Paris.

Minister of Tourism, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, departed the island for Paris, France yesterday (August 7) to attend the Olympic Games. While in Paris Minister Bartlett will be instrumental in promoting Jamaica as a premier tourist destination through the Jamaica Tourist Board’s (JTB) Jamaica House initiative.

A test run meant to allow athletes to familiarise themselves with the marathon swimming course in the Seine River was cancelled on Tuesday due to concerns about the quality of the Paris waterway.

When Léon Marchand dives in, France holds its breath.

France knocked out world and pan-American football champions Argentina after winning 1-0 in Bordeaux on Friday, in a heated game that ended with a massive brawl that followed more than ten minutes of stoppage time.

The summer of 2024 is in full swing and visitors are flocking to Europe from around the globe.

Though I am arguably biased as a local, Chicago in the summer is one of the greatest cities in the world. Part of that is due to the number of events on a given weekend, including Chase Sapphire events.

Aug 1, 2024 • 5 min read

The arrival of the biggest summer sport events in Paris has led to a surge in hotel occupancy and room rates in the city in hotels using Mews. Occupancy rates for the next two weeks are 20% higher than in 2023, driven by last-minute bookings, which account for 35% of total occupancy during the sporty event. This is according to analysis by Mews, the cloud software for hotels, based on hundreds of Paris properties.

Major sports events attract not only fans but also tourists interested in experiencing the atmosphere and culture of the host city. For example, the Olympic Games or the UEFA Champions League offer the perfect occasion for tourists to explore the host cities while enjoying the sporting excitement. Civitatis, the leading curated online marketplace for guided tours and activities for Spanish and Portuguese-speaking consumers, recommends that tour and activity companies make the most of this growing segment and suggests a few strategies to leverage the rise of sports tourism:

The Skift Travel Podcast is continuing its series on the Paris Olympics. This episode features a discussion with Patrick Mendes, Accor’s CEO for Europe and North Africa. Accor is an official partner for this year’s Games, as well as Europe’s largest hotel group.

Games wide open! The Paris 2024 Summer Olympics are here—so, expect to hear the roar of that slogan in the weeks again. There’s simply no way to quantify, or perhaps, prepare for, the already-electrifying energy infiltrating the host city and the largest Olympic ceremony ever. Despite the Games’ 300,000 spectator capacity, Paris is expected to receive around 15 million visitors, including 2 million from abroad, in the coming weeks.