Even though lockdown ended this past May, the Covid-19 crisis keeps on having heavy fallouts on the economy of some sectors. Such as French tourism.
In an interview for the Journal du Dimanche on August 9, secretary of state for tourism Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne explains “tourism usually generates 180 billion euros benefits, including 60 billion thanks to international tourism. The immediate impact of the epidemic costs at least 30 to 40 billion euros. […] Many operators tell us their turnovers will be decreasing by 20 to 25% by the end of the year” he adds in the pages of the JDD.
Without surprise, many French people have decided to stay in France for their summer holidays. Thus, 7 French people out of 10 who went on holidays have decided to go somewhere in France. “It enables to save the crux of matter” the secretary of state says. But this “blue, white, red” summer as described by Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne will not be able to save the season. For he says “France usually welcomes 17 million foreign tourists every year, when 9 million French people go abroad”, and “some of this international clientele has gone” he says.
Even though Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne is happy about “an encouraging July” and that he hopes “August will be excellent”, he says the “recovery is fragile” because “as soon as a cluster breaks out, the effect is immediate on the cancelation of stays and bookings”.
By the way, Paris has been experiencing a very harsh decrease. The Île-de-France region has been recording a 16 million-visitor loss since early 2020. A decrease that is likely to go on over the year, depending on the evolution of the coronavirus epidemic.
For the record, Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne recently announced that part-time work for the players of the sector will be extended to December 2020.
