The Eiffel Tower, closed since October 30 due to the health crisis, will reopen on July 16 to the public with a 50% gauge in its elevators. – Xinhua News Agency.All Rights Re
The most famous monument in Paris (what am I saying… all over the world), will be open to the public again this summer. Closed since October 30 due to the health crisis, the Eiffel Tower will welcome visitors from July 16 with a 50% gauge in its elevators, Sete (Eiffel Tower operating company) announced on Thursday.
The capacity will therefore be 10,000 visitors per day, the same level of attendance as in summer 2020, against 25,000 before the crisis, detailed his operator who forecasts a deficit of around 70 million euros for 2021 and is considering a recapitalization.
Ticket office opens on June 1
The ticket office will reopen on June 1, said the president of Sete Jean-François Martins, which relies on two-thirds of online reservations. The physical sale of tickets at the feet of the Grande Dame, one of the most frequented monuments in the world in the pre-Covid era, will remain possible when it reopens. All the floors will be accessible to the public, apart from a few construction areas, particularly on the second floor.
Suspended since the beginning of February due to traces of lead above the regulatory threshold, the painting work in progress will not resume before the fall, time to complete the studies and to choose among the techniques “the least emissive of lead”, a explained Jean-François Martins.
“The two deficits in a row cannot be absorbed”
At the time of the reopening, “there will be no more painting work and the tower will have been completely decontaminated, cleaned”, added the president of Sete, stressing that 70 samples are taken per week. Despite efforts to “reduce fixed costs” and a massive recourse to short-time working, the operator projects for 2021 a loss of around 70 million euros, after having announced in March a deficit of 52 million under the year 2020.
“The two deficits in a row cannot be absorbed by Sete on its own funds”, concedes Jean-François Martins, entered into discussion with the shareholders, the City of Paris (99%) and the Metropolis of Grand Paris (1%) , “Which will help us to pass the course. This will necessarily take the form of a recapitalization ”from the fall, he announced. “We have a difficult period to go through, but we have no long-term concerns,” said the elected socialist, excluding any threat to the employment of the 350 employees of the monument.