2023-12-14 00:50:45
The Paris Council voted on Wednesday to introduce a fee for tourist buses, which will come into force at the start of 2024 and will be calculated based on stopping places and turnover. These buses “occupy Parisian public space for commercial purposes, so it is normal to charge for them,” explained the (EELV) deputy for mobility and roads David Belliard before the adoption of the project.
The fixed part of the annual fee will be calculated “per stopping point according to geographical location”, with an amount for tourist areas (6,200 euros per year) twice as high as that for other areas (3,100 euros), explains the town hall. in its deliberation project.
“More original” tourist routes
This provision aims to “avoid having a lot of buses and coaches in the same place” and “to encourage operators to move away from traditional tourist routes to offer more original stops”, explains David Belliard. The variable part will be 2% if the annual turnover is below 15 million euros, and 8% if it exceeds this level, in order to protect the activity, a- he detailed.
The right-wing opposition, which abstained from the vote, denounced through Jack-Yves Bohbot such a “significant” fee, which represents “an additional burden for a low-margin activity”. The elected representative of the LR and related group proposed, in vain, “to wait for the call for tenders from Île-de-France Mobilités which should take place at the beginning of 2024”.
Until the operating rights expire at the end of 2024, two historic operators share this market in the most visited city in the world: Tootbus, which “currently operates two lines serving 21 stopping points”, and Bigbus, with “a line serving 10 stopping points,” specifies the town hall.
These tourist lines “experienced a period of uncertainty” first around the regulation of the service, concluded with the designation in 2018 of IDFM as organizing authority, then with the Covid-19 pandemic, recognizes the town hall. But the year 2022 saw “an encouraging resumption of tourist activity, which augurs a resumption of solid tourist line activity from 2023”, underlines the Town Hall to justify its fee.
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