With the arrival of the Delta variant, travel cancellations in the capital are linked this summer.

While the region expected 5 million foreign tourists, Americans and Asians did not make the trip to the great regret of the small hands of tourism who are struggling to get their heads out of the water. 

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Foreign tourists are largely absent from this summer 2021. In Ile-de-France, tourism professionals expected 5 million tourists but with the arrival of the Delta variant, cancellations are linked.

Without Americans and Asians, the capital does not have the same face this year, to the dismay of the small hands of tourism hit hard.

This is particularly the case in the Montmartre district where traders despair of seeing their activity resume.

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"Do you both want to pose?"

Marie-Noëlle stops without really believing the passers-by, leaning on her easel, her pastel box not even cracked.

Before the crisis, however, tourists lined up to buy him a portrait.

"Now we do a drawing and then we wait two hours. It's morally exhausting", admits the artist.

At the other end of the Place du Tertre, Jean-Jacques even hesitated to bring out his watercolors.

"It's not my clientele at all. I'm more middle-class Americans. So I just came to chat, but honestly, I'm not selling anything," he despairs.

As a result, painters and portrait painters sell off their works to French or European tourists.

Cascading cancellations

As for the guides, they also reduce the airfoil.

Due to a lack of customers, they offer fewer visits than before on the Butte Montmartre, as explained by Emilie, who chooses the best bakeries and cafes in the district for tourists to discover.

"In 2019 I had groups of 9 to 12 people. This year we have a lot of cancellations and we find ourselves doing almost individual tours," says the young woman.

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His group, even reduced to grief, passes at the foot of the Sacré-Coeur, in front of Antoine's shop. He who sells bracelets, magnets and berets is bored behind his counter. "We are doing 20% ​​of what we did two years ago. Certainly the French buy Eiffel Towers but it is not the same volume. Where tourists bought several, they buy one for their child. , that's all, ”says the seller. And faced with the situation, many of these professionals even think of simply stopping their activity.