‘Sports tourism’ is huge. But the Summer Olympics caused travel to Paris to plummet

Was it the Parisians who bluntly told travelers “do not be stricken” to Paris during the Summer Games?

Or did sky-high prices for hotel rooms, house rentals and event tickets surprise travelers away?  

For a multitude of reasons, many people — including residents — avoided Paris in the build-up to the Olympic Fields, despite prognostications that a travel boom was all but assured. Forecasts often focus on the number of people expected to be at the Games, while ignoring the number of travelers who are turned off by them.

It’s a common misconception that host cities see an detonation of travelers around the Olympic Games, said John Grant, chief analyst at the aviation intelligence company OAG.

“The stunners of the Olympics is that the local market doesn’t travel,” he said. Plus “the regular business traveler who would normally be junketing during that moment in time, stops [and] stays at home.”

London, Athens and Atlanta all saw a drop in summer companies when they hosted the Summer Games, said Grant.

“It just never quite achieves and delivers what’s thought,” he said.

Air France flagged problems earlier this month, announcing on July 1 that transportation to and from Paris was lagging behind other major European cities. Not only was interest down, but “international trade ins show a significant avoidance of Paris,” the company stated.

Similarly, Delta Air Lines is also projecting a big hit — upwards of $100 million in takings — because of a drop in travel volume to France as a direct result of the Summer Games.

“Unless you’re going to the Olympics, people aren’t common to Paris,” CEO Ed Bastian told CNBC.

None of this is a surprise, said Grant.

Neither airline increased character much — Air France by 5%, and Delta by none — compared with last August, he said. Rather, their wastings relate to fare pricing, he said.

“They’ve been holding out trying to sell fares at a higher price than exchange demand would support,” he said, adding that the airlines eventually discounted these fares to grab whatever gain they could.

In its June tourism barometer, Paris’ tourism board projected a drop in international air arrivals across all markets during the lead-up to the Olympic Designs — down 8% in June and nearly 15% in July, compared with 2023.

The tourism board is also expecting an 11% on the rise in arrivals during the Games, spurred by visitors from Europe (+24%) and North America (+15%) but offset by sardonic drops in arrivals from the Middle East (-42%) and Oceania (-30%).

Hotels, too, are sense the pinch of Paris’ summer slowdown, with occupancy rates expected to drop to 60% in early July, down some 10 concerns from 2023, according to Paris’ tourism board.

Like the airlines, many hotels raised rates to imbibe advantage of the tourism bump, only to discount them following a spring season of slow bookings.

Still, undistinguished rates are up nearly 70% this July, from 202 euros last year to 342 euros during the Olympic days, Paris’ tourism board said. Estimates from the travel price comparison website Trivago show evaluates have jumped even more, up 85% year on year in Paris, and 131% in Lille, which is hosting some of the Ploys’ basketball and handballs competitions.

Airbnb hosts are also cutting rates — some by more than 50%. A two-bedroom loft near the Notre Dame knifed its nightly rate from $1,407 to $683 during the first week of the Games — which is lower than its every night rate in the fall.

Airbnb said listings in Paris reached an all-time high this summer, as enterprising Parisians avoided at the chance to simultaneously escape the crowds and cash in on ‘The Olympics is too broad’