• Vacationers have turned to city tourism due to generally gloomy weather this summer.

  • Bordeaux is doing quite well, but the mid-range catering and hotel industry have suffered.

  • Professionals are betting on an improvement in business tourism this fall.

It's better than in 2020 but it's far from rivaling 2019. We can sum up the Bordeaux summer season like this.

“The overall flows to the destination have been on an upward curve since May / June with a fairly satisfactory number of visitors in August (70% occupancy rate in hotels for that month).

But we are late compared to 2019 for sure, between March to November in Bordeaux we are normally on occupancy rates of more than 75% ”, explains Olivier Occelli, director general of the Bordeaux tourist office. Metropolis.

Is it raining, are we going to the museum?

The Gironde capital has benefited from its location close to the coast.

When the days were gloomy, tourists booked at the last minute to come and discover the city, an exhibition, a show, etc.

"There was an appetite to discover the cultural news of the city and the metropolis", supports Olivier Occelli.

The attendance figures for municipal museums are not yet available, but we know that the Cité du Vin is doing very well. The number of admissions achieved flirts with the levels of 2019. “There was a very big retargeting work to speak to the local and French public.

However, there are still many people in France who do not know the City of wine, ”says the director of the tourist office.

The Bassins de Lumières exhibition at the submarine base shows a drop in attendance compared to 2019 with 2,500 visitors per day on average but this is a trend deemed logical, two years after a launch that had started in a very intense way. .

These two tourist sites had set up marquees to organize a screening of the public for Covid-19, in situ.

The mid-range hotel industry struggles

“The decline in medium and long-haul tourists was felt this summer, deplores Laurent Tournier, president of UMIH 33 (Union of hotel trades and industries).

On the coast, it worked well but it was more complicated in Bordeaux, in particular with regard to hotel catering (-30 to 40% decrease).

It was the mid-range that was most affected by the lack of attendance.

"

He believes that the profession was rather optimistic in July but that the introduction of the sanitary pass has dampened the hopes of bars, brasseries and restaurants.

"It is the establishments with a more popular clientele that have suffered the most," he points out.

And the establishments now find themselves confronted with a disaffection for their professions: "a large part of our employees have left or are in the process of leaving".

The return of congresses in the fall

“On business tourism, we are rather positive,” says Olivier Occelli.

The seminars in the hotels are maintained and there is no mistrust of the resumption of these meetings by companies ”.

From September, three national congresses (USH HLM, Order of Chartered Accountants and AFVAC) are scheduled in Bordeaux.

The number of congress days which was 592 in 2020 rose to 6,686 in 2021, far behind the 41,622 congress days totaled in 2019.

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  • Restoration

  • Aquitaine

  • Hotel

  • Hotel

  • Tourism

  • Museum