2015 terror attacks hit Paris hotels hard

THE PARIS terror attacks in November last year appear to have dramatically reduced the number of tourists visiting the city, with the number of empty hotel beds on an average night in the French capital up by 65%.

The slump in demand has led to price cuts, with the average Paris hotel room at 236 (about R3 675) 3.1% cheaper than they were before the terrorists attacks at the Bataclan theatre and elsewhere in the city, which killed 130 people.

The Independent has analysed figures provided by the global hotel data specialist STR for the first nine months of 2016 compared with the same spell last year. Between January and September, a period that included the Charlie Hebdo attack in January last year, average occupancy was strong at 81.3%.

But this year it has fallen to 69.1%. Revenue per available room, the standard industry measure, fell by over 15%. Employment has been hit as a consequence, with hoteliers cutting their labour costs by 7.8%.

Tourist-dependent enterprises had hoped that Euro 2016, the football tournament hosted in June and July, would boost performance, but this did not materialise. Thomas Emanuel, business development director for STR, said: “It’s become quite clear that the most important factor in the market’s recovery will be time.

Terry Williamson, chief executive of the hotel booking firm JacTravel, said there are already signs of improvement: “It looks as though the Paris market is recovering. There’s some very good offers and deals around for Paris at the moment.

“I think that December will be strong for Paris and let’s hope that it continues into 2017.” Williamson said that Brussels and Istanbul, which have also suffered terrorist attacks, had had a “very difficult” year.