As one of the most visited cities in the world, Paris remains a popular choice for all. 2016 was a difficult year around the world with terrorism spiking and Paris had more than its fair share of attacks, however, tourists are gaining confidence in travelling once again and Paris seems to have bounced back. Recent figures have declared 2017 so far has been successful and visitors who love this beautiful city are not only taking holidays and weekend breaks they are investing in property for sale in Paris as their second home.
Many investors buy property abroad to obtain a good rental yield, Paris is famous for its sightseeing tours of museums and art galleries and who could forget the Eiffel Tower? Tourists enjoy renting apartments in Paris as it truly captures the essence of this wonderful city, freedom. Space and privacy are something you cannot get in a hotel room this makes the investor very happy indeed; superb rental returns make Paris a lucrative investment. Holidaymakers buy because they love this vibrant city and possibly it will be their permanent home one day maybe after retirement.
How long does it take to get to Paris?
Paris is an extremely easy city to reach, International flights from just about everywhere fly directly to Charles de Gaulle – CDG and Paris Orly – ORY airports on a daily basis. London to Paris by air takes only around 38 minutes. There is also the Channel Tunnel from Folkestone to Calais in just 35 minutes, this makes visiting this colourful city for a weekend or midweek break simple, hardly any travelling time and more time to immerse oneself in all that Paris has to offer.
The Grand Paris Hotel Group which first opened in the 1800s has recently disclosed its occupancy for July 2017 had increased by 7{032b6a7a020d19952ed8064fd0f08b3897ed8b87cecd4d0f46a78a44654cafa4} to 72.3{032b6a7a020d19952ed8064fd0f08b3897ed8b87cecd4d0f46a78a44654cafa4} compared to the same time in July 2016; however, this is still below figures for 2015. Thus the summer season for tourism in Paris declared it had in effect passed the grade, 2016 was a very difficult year for tourism in general and more so for Paris. It’s encouraging that the 2017 summer season proved that tourists were once again visiting the city and Pierre Schapira, President of Paris’s Conventions and Tourism Bureau stated that the “renewed interest in Paris as a destination makes it possible for us to envisage a satisfactory end to the fiscal year”
During July and August, the occupancy rate in “Grand Paris” hotels reached 72.3{032b6a7a020d19952ed8064fd0f08b3897ed8b87cecd4d0f46a78a44654cafa4} – an increase of 7 percentage points compared to the same period in 2016, but down by 6.5 points compared to July and August in 2015. The reason for this was the more limited than expected performance during the month of August – occupancy rate of 65{032b6a7a020d19952ed8064fd0f08b3897ed8b87cecd4d0f46a78a44654cafa4} – as well as a decrease in the average duration of stays (2.2 nights on average in July) in addition to the partial recovery of the leisure tourism sector, was the main cause of the disappointing results seen in August.
Tourism in Paris
However, the performance during the summer tourism season in the city remains positive with the highest number of tourists in the last ten years. The record-breaking number of 2.2 million which is up by 12.2{032b6a7a020d19952ed8064fd0f08b3897ed8b87cecd4d0f46a78a44654cafa4} compared to the same time in 2016 is astounding. This is due to visiting French tourists returning and is up by 13.6{032b6a7a020d19952ed8064fd0f08b3897ed8b87cecd4d0f46a78a44654cafa4} and North American tourists from the USA which during the first 6 months of the year were “at the forefront of the recovery of foreign tourism,” the Office for the City of Paris stated.
As the summer season draws to an end and the autumn season is soon to be upon us, it is looking very promising indeed. Tourists still love to visit the city during the autumn and winter months and major exhibits and trade shows such as Batimat, Milipol Paris, “Le Salon des maires et des collectivités locales”, etc will promote more visitors. The major cultural openings of the Yves Saint Laurent museum and the reopening of the “Monnaie de Paris” which offer large-scale autumn exhibits during the autumn season is encouraging more tourists until the end of the year.
I think it’s fairly safe to say that Paris is definitely back on visitors, tourists and holiday home buyers radar. It’s always unfortunate when random acts of terrorism deflate a cities tourist numbers however once visitors gain more confidence it’s only a matter of time before tourist numbers increase and the city bounces back to normal. Paris offers the culture lovers amongst us superb sightseeing at its best.
Of course if you do visit Paris in the summer months you can always take a detour to visit some of the other wonderful areas of France that can be breathtaking vacation spots. From the Cote D’Azur to the Tour Du Mont Blanc, France has it all.
