Unlike other large cities like Paris, which faces a drastic drop in tourists in summer, this year again, the summer season in Marseille has again broken all records in terms of tourist attendance this year. “Marseille is popular”, rejoices Marc Thépot, president of the metropolitan tourist office and congresses of the city of Marseille.
“From the start of the school holidays, concerning the filling rate, we experienced a very rapid increase in load,” says Maxime Tissot, director of the tourist office. Concretely, the overall occupancy rate reaches 82.6%, of which 80% are French customers, mainly from Ile-de-France. Particularity of this summer: reservations by this clientele, mainly young and family, were made at the last moment.
“Five years ago, last minute bookings, that is to say less than a week, amounted to 30%, analysis Nicolas Guyot, Marseille hotelier and vice-president of the Union des Métiers and the hospitality industries of Bouches-du-Rhône. Today, 30% of reservations are made within 48 hours and 70% less than a week in advance. Our customers were hung up on the new measures put in place and which always arrived late.
“The best performances in France over the summer”
“Marseille has the best summer hotel occupancy rate of major French cities”, rejoices the tourist office in a press release, which also prides itself on recording in Marseille “the best performance in France on summer with restaurant reservation growth rates of 81% in July from 54% in August compared to 2019. ”
An upward trend compared to previous years, already marked by an increase in the number of tourists during the summer period. “We have exceeded the 2020 occupancy rate by 5 to 7 points, with a more constant summer,” notes Maxime Tissot. The summer of 2020 was marked by a very complicated clientele, let’s say disturbed and disturbing. There we were able to change the water in the jar a bit… ”
However, the tourist office refuses to speak of overcrowding. “We have worked a lot with the Calanques National Park on these issues,” Maxime Thépot says. And there was no tourist overcrowding. We are there to provide tourist information and we have worked on other circuits, to redirect to other neighborhoods. The Calanques National Park has announced that it wants to launch an experiment on the Sugiton Calanque, with a reservation required before each visit, and a capped number of visitors.