The Paris tourism market has struggled to fully recover following terrorist attacks in the city on a year ago today, according to latest statistics from leading price comparison website icelolly.com.
Data from the past 12 months paints a turbulent picture for the city’s tourism market, which has seen a 65 per cent decline in demand since October 2016. Attacks on Paris in November 2015, Brussels in March 2016 and later Nice in July 2016 have all had a profound impact on the popularity of Paris as a tourist destination – despite all occurring many miles apart.
After seeing a 43 per cent drop in the immediate aftermath of the attacks and a further 35 per cent decline in December, demand recovered into March, with seasonal events such as Valentine’s Day proving ever popular for holidaymakers. However, confidence was rocked again following attacks in Brussels, with enquiry demand dropping by 52 per cent between March and April – typically a period of growth for booking summer holidays to Paris.
The pattern for recovery repeated itself into June, but attacks in Nice on Bastille Day sent demand plummeting to its lowest point of the year. Whereas the period of August to October was that of highest demand in 2015, in 2016 it became the lowest, with no current signs of volume picking up as the anniversary approaches.
Ross Matthews, Chief Marketing Officer for icelolly.com, commented: “This has been a year of heartbreak for France as a whole, and Paris – its flagship holiday destination and famously one of the most visited cities in the world – has witnessed an unfortunate decline in demand as a result. However, we believe that the market will remain resilient.
“The trend for swift recovery in between each event indicates that the popularity of Paris will endure, and that holidaymakers are unlikely to be put off for very long.”
The statistics also highlighted that other European city breaks appear to have benefited from the decline appetite for city breaks to Paris, with demand for Amsterdam up 22 per cent, between September – October 2016, Dublin up 16 per cent and Berlin up 50 per cent during the same period.
ENDS
Press contact:
Brodie Hayward
Account Manager, MC2
brodieh@thisismc2.com
0161 236 1352
Notes to editors
Founded in 2005, icelolly.com is today one of the UK’s leading holiday price comparison websites, with more than 20 million visitors each year.
Customers can compare 130 million great deals on package holidays from some of the top travel companies every day. Booking is simple, fast and safe – all a holidaymaker has to do is call the phone number provided and they will be connected to a dedicated travel agent advertiser partner, who will process their reservation as well as provide all the required information.
Being able to compare deals from more than 30 different Travel Agent Partners, who add their latest offers daily, allows customers to save money on their holiday booking, making icelolly.com a firm favourite with British families.