The Louvre Museum said it would raise its basic ticket price to 22 euros from 17 euros beginning next month in the latest sign that visitors may face higher costs ahead of next year’s Summer Olympics in Paris.
The Louvre, which expects to have welcomed nearly 9 million visitors by the end of the year, said the approximately 30 percent price hike would go into effect on Jan. 15 and was part of the museum’s effort to offset rising energy costs and support its free admission programs geared toward local residents.
While the increase was not directly tied to the Paris Summer Olympics, it was seen as part of a larger trend of rising prices across the French capital as it prepares to host nearly 10 million people in town for the Games, which will run from July 20 to Sept. 8.
Last month, the city’s transportation agency was weighing whether to double the price of a Metro ride — to €4 (about $4.30) from €2.10 — for the duration of the Summer Olympics to cover increased operation costs to meet higher demand.
Hoteliers were also expected to raise rates for the Games, prompting concerns of price gouging, according to the French newspaper Le Monde.
But the increased museum admission was part of a broader revamp that was already underway, the Louvre said.
Since her appointment as the Louvre’s president and director in 2021, Laurence des Cars has sought to overhaul the state-owned museum, with plans to open a new entrance on its easternmost facade to tame the relentlessly thick congestion to get inside via the giant glass-and-steel Louvre Pyramid.
By doing so, des Cars hopes to re-enchant Parisians who have been gradually repelled by the suffocating crush of tourists.
The Louvre is home to more than 33,000 works of art ranging from Greek marble sculptures to immersive Renaissance paintings.
The biggest draw of all is the Mona Lisa, painted by Leonardo da Vinci. Perhaps the most famous painting in the world, it has saddled the Louvre with what has been called the “Mona Lisa problem.” Her unparalleled allure attracts frenzied flocks of tourists, creating a chaos that has turned off local residents.
This year, des Cars capped the daily attendance at 30,000 visitors, down from peaks as high as 45,000 before the coronavirus pandemic.
“We must rebalance the Louvre,” de Cars said when she announced the change.
The new price will largely affect tourists.
The French make up 30 percent of visitors, but more than half don’t have to spend a single euro for admission because they are children or are eligible to enter free, either under a program for European Union residents who are younger than 26 or for people in certain professions.
The website maxtravelz.com is an aggregator of news from open sources. The source is indicated at the beginning and at the end of the announcement. You can send a complaint on the news if you find it unreliable.
Though perhaps not as famous or enigmatic as the Nazca lines in southern Peru, the Kazakhstan Steppe geoglyphs or California's Blythe Intaglios, the U.S. has some interesting 20th-century manmade creations meant to be seen from above. They played a key role in flight long before the days of modern navigational software and technology.
Wonderfully intact Maya ruins and a remote biosphere reserve where you can still genuinely go off the grid are just two of many attractions in Honduras.
If you’ve been clamoring to see the ethereal northern lights, consider heading to Canada, where they ribbon through the sky 300 days a year in certain regions. Northern Canada in particular offers the best chance to see aurora borealis because much of the region lies beneath the auroral oval, the area around Earth’s magnetic poles that are a hot spot for activity.
France’s winding cobbled lanes and tree-lined rural roadways offer a straight shot into the heart of the country. Incredible countryside vistas merge into unique and highly wanderable villages, castles and coastlines that will etch your journey into your memories.
Southwest Airlines is in the news after a self-described plus-size travel influencer applauded the carrier's "customer of size and extra seat policy," which allows passengers to "proactively purchase the needed number of seats prior to travel to ensure the additional seat(s) is available," per the airline.
The Summer Olympics are returning to Paris exactly a century after it last hosted the event. A country where fine wine and haute cuisine prevail means Paris doesn’t have a reputation for being particularly affordable. To make the Games more accessible, some events around the Seine will have free viewing zones – including the opening ceremony. But we’re still living in a material world and you’ll need to pay the rental on your humble flat. With nightly rates circling $150 or less, these are the most budget-friendly Airbnbs for the 2024 Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The countdown has begun: France will welcome the 2024 Summer Olympic Games from July 26 until August 11 with the Paralympic Games following from August 28 to September 8. Paris and the Île-de-France region form the cradle of the action where the spectacle will kick off at 8:24 p.m. sharp (or, 20:24 – touché).
Prepare to be wowed: Djemaa El Fna is the dazzling heart of Marrakesh, with hordes of people all day long and into the night. It’s an exciting place to be, with shops, restaurants, herbalists, cats, kids going to school, drummers, fruit-juice carts, motorbikes, groups of tourists, bugle-players, women going shopping, and the odd snake.
Attention, all travel enthusiasts. If you want to maximize your travel plans and book an additional flight at no extra cost, booking a Flying Blue stopover can help unlock more value from your miles. In 2022, Air France-KLM Flying Blue began allowing stopovers on its own one-way, round-trip and multi-city award ticketed flights. Then, in 2023, the airline loyalty program expanded stopovers to all partner award tickets.
Loading your carry-on bag in the overhead bin sounds simple (aside from testing your upper-body strength if you overpacked a bit). But, if you're still doing it the same exact way you were 10 years ago, as shown in the photo below, the odds are high that you're doing it wrong on some flights.