Travellers from outside the EU are getting ready for the launch of the new Entry/Exit System (EES) on 10 November, but are Schengen countries ready to welcome them?
30.08.2024 - 22:53 / insider.com / Ed Bastian / Delta Ceo / Olivia Gregoire
You might assume hosting the Olympics is great for a city's economy thanks to an influx of visitors staying in hotels, dining out, and enjoying the sights.
But the financial benefits of hosting the Olympics aren't so clear. The Games can end up costing a host country billions of dollars and can leave behind structures that sit empty for years.
Ahead of this year's Olympics, Paris tried to mitigate losses by relying on existing venues and making detailed plans for the future of other structures, including the Olympic Village.
But it was unclear how many visitors would pay to travel to Paris during the Games. Several airlines said they anticipated a loss in revenue as fewer people appeared to be interested in traveling to Paris than in previous summers.
"Unless you're going to the Olympics, people aren't going to Paris," Delta CEO Ed Bastian told CNBC in July. He estimated the airline would lose up to $100 million because of the Olympics.
But as the Games got underway and spectators poured into the stadiums and streets, it became clear that Paris was still bustling — though with sports fans rather than shoppers.
A Forbes report said the French newspaper Le Monde estimated that 1.3 million people visited at least one so-called fan zone, or area for watching sports, in Paris during the Olympics. France's tourism minister, Olivia Grégoire, told the French paper La Tribune Dimanche, per Reuters, that museum attendance was up by 25% compared with the same period in 2023 and that the number of hotel guests increased by 16%.
Visa, the Olympics' payment partner, reported a 42% increase in customers in Paris during the first week of the Games compared with the same week last summer.
Overall, the Paris tourism office estimated 11 million people visited the city during the Olympics, down from its initial estimate of 15 million. Still, 11 million was a 4% increase from 2023's visitor numbers for the same period, it said.
It remains to be seen whether visitor rates will stay consistent for the Paralympics, which kicked off in Paris this week. But as evidenced by other host cities, Paris is likely to feel the effects of these games for years to come.
Here's what it looked like to be a tourist in Paris during this year's Olympics.
Travellers from outside the EU are getting ready for the launch of the new Entry/Exit System (EES) on 10 November, but are Schengen countries ready to welcome them?
There’s never a bad time to go to Paris, and Air France agrees, giving away a pair of roundtrip flights and a wardrobe incroyable so travelers can live their best French lives.
Driving between France and Italy this year? You may be forced take a detour as the Mont-Blanc Tunnel, which links the two countries beneath the Alps, is closing for 15 weeks for renovation work.
Europe’s ancient cobbled cities are not necessarily renowned for accessibility, but if you know where to look, Paris has reliably accessible places to visit. The bus system is fully accessible, with frequent services to most areas in the city. Many of the major activities or venues in the city have elevators, ramps, and staff more than willing to help. Plus, most of the museums and cultural activities in the city are available for free or at a heavily discounted rate for people with disabilities and their caregivers.
A volcano in Iceland has erupted for the sixth time in three months, spewing red lava through a 4 kilometre fissure on the Reykjanes Peninsula.
London is in its global hotel brand era: In the last year, it’s added a Raffles, a Peninsula and a second Mandarin Oriental; a Waldorf Astoria, a St. Regis and a Six Senses are on their way. This new guard is taking over historical icons and throwing up gleaming towers, and it’s upping the ante on amenities, too. A posh afternoon tea is no longer enough, it seems; now, five-stars come with signature scents, subterranean spas, museum-worthy art and long-stay residences. Rooftop bars, a rarity here a decade ago, are now seemingly obligatory (Bar 33 at the Emory wins for views, with everything from Big Ben to Battersea Power Station in its sights). But there’s still room for the occasional independent hotel, like the Broadwick, a maximalist love letter to the owner Noel Hayden’s hotelier parents and the creative Soho of the ’90s in which he came of age. “It’s a bit of a sensory overload,” Hayden says. Naturally, there’s a rooftop bar there, too.
“The pavements are often narrow and cluttered. There’s always either a badly parked bike, dustbins, or dog waste,” says Virginie Dubost, a wheelchair user and disability consultant who lives and works in Paris. Recently, when coming out of a museum, she got stuck. “The pavement was very high, and it was complicated to turn around,” she tells me.
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When Los Angeles–based designer Clare Vivier began decorating the 19th-century house she'd bought in her husband's hometown of Saint-Calais, in France's Loire Valley, she had a particular aesthetic in mind. “I love color and patterns but wanted something peaceful, so the intention was to create a dialogue between those two things,” she says. She wanted the house to have a blend of contemporary pieces, antiques, and textiles from heritage maisons to create a space that, much like her namesake handbag and fashion label, channeled both California fun and French sophistication. She also knew that she wanted her longtime friend Kate Berry, a designer and creative director, to help her make it happen.