After the Covid period, “we realize that the French do less and less arbitration on these moments of relaxation”explains Saturday, February 18 on franceinfo Vanguélis Panayotis, president of MKG Consulting (an analysis firm on tourist activity) while the winter holidays are starting for zone C. We are currently seeing an 11% increase in attendance in the mountain resorts compared to pre-Covid in 2019.
franceinfo: How do we explain this upturn? Are vacation budgets sacred?
Vanguélis Panayotis : [Pendant la période de Covid], there was a real frustration on the part of the French not to find these moments of sharing and sport with the family, of ski holidays for the season, in a context which is unfortunately sometimes anxiety-provoking. It’s a real discovery after this period of Covid, we realize that we do less and less arbitration on these moments of relaxation. About ten years ago, when we bought a house, we ate pasta and we no longer went on vacation, today it is less true, we may eat pasta but we are not going to make ‘arbitration. We talk a lot about purchasing power and concerns about inflation. But it is not something that we observe to date, perhaps if it continues we will have elements on it but there we do not see the French making clear arbitrations.
During the end-of-year celebrations, hotels experienced an increase in occupancy, with more than 600,000 additional overnight stays compared to 2019, how can this be explained? Is it the return of foreign tourists?
Yes clearly. We had a return of Americans to high-end destinations, starting with Paris. There is a euro-dollar parity effect which has been very favorable to this American clientele. There is also “revenge travel”: this frustration that we have experienced for two years and it is not only French, everyone wanted to travel again. Apart from the Asian clientele or special cases such as the Russian clientele, the rest of the world has rediscovered this desire to travel and since France is an attractive country which crystallizes many fantasies about gastronomy, the Eiffel Tower, museums… .we took full advantage of this rebound.
Regarding business tourism, the fact of having to travel for work, the recovery is slower in this sector?
For now, with the figures we have, we see that professional events with trade shows are doing quite well. It’s quite surprising, there are some contrasts but overall it’s rather positive. We are almost at the level of 2019.
What are your forecasts for this year in France regarding tourism?
We have a very good summer with high reservations for certain destinations. Some locations are 40% full for the month of June. Don’t wait too long to book if you still want to find attractive prices. We have good momentum at least until September and we think that the year will end positively for the sector. Today, people are looking for experience, so holiday villages, open-air hotels, touring tourism by renting vans… Anything that brings a surplus of experience is really this that people are looking for.