Paris has lost its touristic attractiveness due to‘yellow vests’ protests this Christmas, politicallore.com notes in the following report.
The French capital looks not so romantic as usual, confirm its residents, referring to the unrest.
Paris’ lustre is not so bright this Christmas season, as too many violent protests made the city unattractive for tourists from all over the world.
The scenes of violence on the Champs-Elysees that were broadcast around the world have already begun to have an effect on tourism in Paris.
Traditionally, the first weekend in December marks the beginning of the Christmas shopping season in French capital, but not this year.
Thousands of tourists from around the world aren’t flocking to the most romantic city of the planet to make their festive purchases.
In the centre of Paris, the destruction is evident, six buildings were set alight, dozens of restaurants and shops and even the Arc de Triomphe were sacked and pillaged and more than 100 cars burned has led many to question whether they should cancel their visit to the old European city.
Last week, the protests quickly spread from Place de L’Etoile down the avenues, where people were smashing and burning cars, and pillaging banks, shops and restaurants and the respective scenes are unlikely to fill anyone planning a trip to Paris with confidence.
In other words, those tourists who scheduled their Christmas reservations in Paris preferred not to go there. And the effects are already being felt.
Tourists cancel their Paris reservations
What mainly worries Paris hoteliers is that cancellations and early departures of tourists, are already up by about 15 percent in the sector.
Tourists who usec to come to Paris for New Year’s eve and rent an apartment a block from the Arc, are not exactly sure if they’re going now.
Roland Heguy of the CAT tourism federation also warned that this Christmas season was «at risk, if not already lost.» In fact, France had been on track for a banner tourism year, he added, recovering from the slump which followed the jihadist attacks of 2015.
The local residents admit that for starters, nobody in Paris spends much time on the Champs-Élysées.
Nevertheless, they point out that problems are highly concentrated in a small area. Montmartre was far away and relatively calm while plenty of other fun areas were fine.
In other words, they argue that it’s easy to avoid the problem areas in Paris.
Whether tourists from all over the world will be persuaded by such arguments remains to be seen…
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