• After the strikes, the “yellow vests” and the Covid-19, the avenue des Champs-Elysées is gradually seeing tourists return in the hope of regaining its former crowds.

  • From 70,000 people per day in the first half of the year to nearly 100,000 last October, the avenue is gradually approaching pre-crisis attendance (150,000 people per day).

  • If the French and other Europeans come more to visit the avenue, the signs are still waiting for the Chinese and tourists from the Middle East, who spend more money.

“It's coming back, little by little, especially since the school holidays. But it's still not quite like it used to be. “Behind the counter of his newsstand on the Champs-Elysées, Pascal comments on the flow of strollers on the most famous avenue in the world. Like him, many retailers and traders carefully scrutinize the return of tourists. Eddy, employee of a luxury store, watches passers-by while smoking a cigarette: “It's been better since September. But this morning, it is mostly people in a hurry, who go to the office, there are not many tourists. "

Like Eddy's expert eye, the avenue slowly sees returning those who are essential to its postcard image, visitors from all over the world.

"The Champs-Elysées welcomed 150,000 people in 2018, before the strikes, the yellow vests and the Covid", explains Marc-Antoine Jamet, president of the Champs-Elysées Committee.

If the influx observed at the end of the year is still far from what it was, the brands have reason to be optimistic.

French and Europeans for "weekend" tourism

From 70,000 people per day on average in the first half of 2021, to a number between 90,000 and 100,000 people per day in November, the increase is notable. Edouard Lefebvre, director general of the committee, highlights the very good figures for October: “We are seeing the influx return to the catering and hotel industry. Hotels reported an occupancy rate of 80%, up from two-thirds this summer. Better still, some palaces are reopening their gourmet restaurants, closed since the first confinement.

“What is different from before Covid-19 is above all that we have been seeing" weekend "tourism for some time.

Lots of French people… Parisians, Ile-de-France residents or Provincials.

But also a lot of Europeans.

The Dutch and the Germans, who usually represent a smaller share, ”explains Marc-Antoine Jamet.

For the president of the Champs-Elysées Committee, the difficulty of traveling in a large part of the world, linked to a strong desire to enjoy mythical places, pushes new audiences to walk the streets of the 8th arrondissement.

And even more: “A palace told me that it had rented its royal suite to a couple from Lyonnais, a first!

"

The absence of the "big ones"

Unfortunately for the shops of the avenue, this new attendance has the defects of its qualities: the difficulties of movement also affect the categories of tourists who made the success of the avenue. A waiter from the Alsace brasserie confides: “Yes, some tourists have returned. But others like Asians are absent, and it is 70% of our clientele in normal times. "

All the actors concerned agree on this significant lack, still justifying the 50,000 fewer people every day on the sidewalks of the avenue. If the Americans are starting to come up with their noses, after months of total absence, the brands are impatiently awaiting the return of the Chinese, South-West Asians and visitors from the Middle East. Sofiane, in charge of the security of a department store, agrees: “We see Brazilians, Pakistanis, Indians, but in number and in expenditure, that does not equal the Chinese and the Middle East. "

While waiting for the return of these precious tourists, Marc-Antoine Jamet is counting on the opening ceremony of the Christmas lights to remind the whole world of the beauty of the avenue, sure of its prestige and its renewed attractiveness.

“The Champs-Elysées are part of French mythology.

An avenue that begins with an obelisk thousands of years old, and came from Egypt, and which ends with a triumphal arch in homage to Napoleon, will always attract visitors.

"

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  • Covid 19

  • Champs-Elysees

  • China

  • Paris

  • Confinement

  • Tourism

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