"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" ... The emblematic start of the History of two cities resonates amid the turbulence of Brexit . Dickens would be surprised that in the 21st century it is his city that lives in a state of turmoil and chaos in the face of the relative tranquility of the Bastille and its surroundings, the yellow vests temporarily placated.
The fact is that Paris has advanced to London by the number of annual visitors (19.1 compared to 19.09 million) and that something like this has not happened for almost a decade. For the first time since the 2012 Olympic Games, the city loses visitors. And the main reason is the 750,000 Europeans who have thought twice before catching the ticket to Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton, Stansted or City (five airports to choose from, nothing less).
In Paris, meanwhile, the hordes of Chinese tourists have flooded the city and forced measures such as traffic control inside the Louvre , with more than 10 million visitors a year. The British Museum , the Tate Modern and even the theaters of the West End have meanwhile started a downward curve amid the uncertainty.
The 3.7% drop in tourism has triggered alarms, although London & Partners strategy director Allen Simpson warns that the long-term trend is positive. The city of clouds is removed at least the spine presuming that tourists spend more than in the city of lights: about 15,000 million euros a year, at a rate of 99.22 pounds per day per head.
"We were going straight to heaven, we were going to hell" ... Dickens's contradictions sound almost an omen before the perspective of Brexit 'to the braves' defended by Boris Johnson and who can tip the tip of his beloved and beaten city. When things go wrong, you can always claim that he was born in New York ...
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