REPORTAGE
With 54 million overnight stays in July and August, Brittany is establishing itself as the second tourist destination in France this summer. According to figures from the Regional Tourism Committee in Brittany, the region has been particularly visited by a clientele much less international than usual, Covid obliges, but not less numerous.
The filling rate of the large car park at the entrance to Quiberon, in Morbihan, is therefore a good barometer for Patrick Leroux, the mayor of the town. "Usually we are more at two-thirds of occupancy, and there we have a parking lot that is full. Which means that there has been a greater influx of visitors," he notes with Europe 1. Simply passing through or for a longer stay, tourists, mostly French, have not shied away from the peninsula whose population has fallen this summer from 7,000 inhabitants to 80,000.
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A historic month of July for some hoteliers
Many professionals in the sector are still seeing this influx. The owner of a hotel thus confides feeling relieved to see the 27 rooms of his establishment continue to be full, despite a cluster reported at the end of July in Quiberon. "There were a dozen or even a dozen cancellations every day. I could have worried, but no sooner were the rooms free than they were re-booked." If the month of July was "historic" for this hotelier, the revenues will however not be enough to make up for the losses of a confined spring.
A late season threatened by a possible second wave
Tourism professionals are now waiting to see what fall has in store for them. This late season is generally popular with an elderly clientele, grandparents who this year may be called upon to look after grandchildren on the occasion of a return to school filled with uncertainties.