Sawt Falasteen - Tourists return to post-Olympic Paris for holiday magic

"This year there is much more tourism than last time I came here. Much much more. Many more people," said Noemi Rizzato, a tourist from Milan who braved the cold to visit the Place du Trocadero on the Right Bank of Paris, bundled up in her down jacket.

Georges Bardot, a 78-year-old pensioner from eastern France, also pointed to large numbers of foreign tourists amid the holiday hustle and bustle in the City of Light.

"We heard every language except French spoken on the metro," Bardot laughed.

This winter, Parisian hotels are experiencing a surge in demand.

The booking rate for two-week Christmas vacations neared 70 percent in mid-December, nine percentage points higher than a year ago, according to data from MKG Consulting.

Top-of-the-range establishments are doing particularly well, with an increase of nearly 14 points over one year.

According to the UMIH hotel and restaurant union, well-heeled international customers are making a comeback.

Frank Delvau, UMIH president for the Paris region, pointed to an "Olympic effect".

The Games "have made tourists want to come back, or to visit", he said.

Tourism professionals said the world's largest sporting event led to a lacklustre summer in Paris.

Wealthy Parisians fled the capital for the summer and many foreign holidaymakers chose to stay away due to transport gridlock and a security crackdown. Hotels and airlines such as Air France saw a drop in bookings, while taxi drivers and restaurant owners said their businesses had been badly affected.

With five billion viewers, the Paris Games were the most followed Games in television and social media history, according to the International Olympic Committee.

- 'Time to go to Paris' -

"We needed this catch-up effect because the situation was very difficult in the third quarter," Delvau said.

"There was a very sharp fall in visitor numbers. The restaurant business was down 40 percent, 50 percent at times," he added.

From November 1 to December 8, international air arrivals to Paris rose by 15.4 percent compared to 2023, to reach 1.3 million, according to the Paris Tourist Office.

On the Ile de la Cite, the island site of Notre Dame cathedral, shopkeepers eagerly await the return of visitors after five years of reconstruction work, as well as the coronavirus lockdowns that saw a drop in tourist numbers.

"The Notre Dame opening this year was the biggest item on our list," said Teju Arora, an engineer from the United States.

"And we did visit Notre Dame, it was amazing. It's a beautiful site and it was great to see, to pray, to visit," said Arora, wearing a red beret.

Around 270,000 people have visited the medieval masterpiece in the first eight days since Notre Dame reopened in early December, rector Olivier Ribadeau Dumas told French daily Le Parisien. "Around 30,000 people a day enter the cathedral."

Tourists "tell themselves it's time to go to Paris", Delvau said.

"They have both Notre Dame and the department stores' windows, which always attract a lot of people."

D.Qudsi--SF-PST