REOPENING OF THE HOSPITALITY IN PARIS AND FRANCE!

18/06/2020

Oh yes! Paris is finally waking up!

Last Sunday, one month after the partial ending of the lockdown in France, President Macron made its 4^th speech, announcing a new major step of our decontainment.
Among the topics addressed, this official allocution was a great news for the hospitality and tourism sector with the announcement of the transition to the green zone of all the French territory except Mayotte and Guyana, generating the long-awaited full reopening of the Parisian “café-restaurants” and the progressive opening of the French frontiers.

Indeed, since yesterday, France has made its first step of “reconnection” to the world, by reopening its frontiers to Europe, thus authorizing travel and journeys, before its full worldwide reopening on July, 1^st. This good and unexpected news is all the more accompanied by a gradual unblocking of the airports as of June, 26^th concerning Orly airport with a slowly recapture of national and internationals flights!
Indeed this is a great news for the French travel & hospitality industry!

Thus French President has promised to commit to getting our economy “fully” back on track and rediscover part of our way of life, our taste for freedom.

In this context, ArtLuxury Experience has investigated these last days the renaissance of hotels in Paris and France, as well as the analysis of current trends in terms of travel intentions from international travellers for Paris destination.

In fact, tourists do confirm now their motivation to come back to Paris!
Through a report presented by the Paris Convention and Visitors Bureau on June, 2^nd, a survey (source:Mastercard/ Mabrian, OTCP) conducted from May 1^st to 20^th on potential visitors from Asia, America and Europe, shows that on-line search for Paris destination has considerably increased!

Indeed, in this period, the on-line Flight searches for Paris literally grew-up compared to April. On the top of the list, we find China, with an increase of 62%, Russia with 39%, borders countries like Germany, Italy, Spain from 22,6% to 35,6%. For potential visitors from United-States, the increase is lower, but the country is still at the top of the searches with almost 195 000 requests.
These increases are very encouraging further to the critical lockdown context, but the figures still remain lower to the previous year in the order of -19,5 % to -90,3 %.

But this interest for Paris is not only at the international level! Indeed, French people are particularly motivated to spend their summer in France! Thus, since the lockdown, “re-discover France” is become very trendy among French people, especially thanks to Stéphane Bern, with the #cetetejevisitelefrance specially created at this occasion. This interest can be confirmed with a study made by BVA/EdV related to “French people and summer 2020 holidays”. The latter reveals that 90% of French holidaymakers will spend their summer in France, against approximately 66% usually in previous years! The trend is definitely upward!

But unfortunately, focussing specifically on the Parisian market, hospitality industry is still blurred or uncertain, whereas the official announcement about the reopening days of the luxury hotel, mainly dedicated to international wealthy clientele, is not yet known.

Whereas the critical decision for reopening is obviously related to profitability, staff availability … upon the categories of clients, we can obviously figure out that the more starred the hotel is and higher in its classification, the later will be its reopening, clearly depending on the arrival of the international wealthy clientele.

That being said, ArtLuxury has conducted its own investigation and is pleased to provide an overview of the situation as per today.

Indeed, first, we can already observe a progressively re-opening of the Parisian four- and five-stars hotels!

As illustration, let’s start with our discussion last Thursday with one of our Parisian Hotels group partners, namely Jeremy Auzanneau, Commercial and Marketing Director of the Inwood Hotels Group. During our meeting at “La Bourdonnais”, their already open 4* Boutique hotel, Jeremy informed us in much details about all specific measures set up related to social distancing, then about the progressive reopening of the other 4* hotels of the Group starting from now, and later in September with their new 5* Champs-Elysées Plaza,  to conclude with a quite interesting exchange on new trends of the Luxury Hotels and hospitality market.

Furthermore, with great satisfaction, we can announce the reopening of several 5-star hotels like Le Collectionneur, Hotel Costes  …. and others early July, such as Fauchon l’Hotel, Alfred Sommier, …

All are of course still facing a low level of reservation, but most of them offer very attractive rates, up to 50% discount in some of them, or offering you an upgrade! Even more a Group like Inwood Hotels is offering very exclusive contest!

This is definitely the right moment for you and a real opportunity to plan you stay next in Paris!

Regarding the 12 official Parisian Palaces, their re-opening is scheduled to occur at last, meaning in these coming weeks, latest in September. Indeed, as of July, we can mention the reopening of La Réserve, Le Crillon, the Peninsula, the Shangri-La, and most probably the Plaza Athénée! For August, the booking is already open for the Ritz and the Park Hyatt Paris-Vendôme! Last but not least, Bristol is announced to reopen by September 1^st, probably followed by the last ones!

Indeed, in case you wish to be the “happy few” to visit Paris first, we would be delighted to organise you a bespoke arrangement!

We are so eagerly looking forward to seeing you again, and keeping you dreaming!

Don’t forget: Stay tuned! A magnificent surprise is coming soon!