While the summer holidays end on Monday for many French people, the time has come to take stock for tourism professionals, while the summer season was both hoped for and feared due to the impact of the coronavirus epidemic. Main lesson: the French remained in France, and favored nature and large preserved spaces, as confirmed to Europe 1 Didier Arino, director general of the ProTourisme cabinet.
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The expert thus notes "a very strong increase in medium-mountain and countryside destinations with a very strong brand image, such as the Vosges, Jura, Dordogne, Lozère or Aveyron". These destinations, he says, "have increased by 6% in overnight stays, but have increased even more in tourist consumption, with an increase of more than 20% for activity providers, for restaurant owners".
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"A considerable influx of local customers"
In addition, adds Didier Arino, it is "the first time, for certain destinations, that French customers have been able to fully compensate for the non-arrival or the slightest arrival of foreign customers". Because in the field, the director general of the ProTourisme cabinet noted "a quite considerable influx of tourist customers, but also of local customers".