Insee Focus · June 2022 · n° 262

Tourist consumption in France fell by one third between 2019 and 2020

Tourist consumption in France, also referred to as internal tourism consumption, totalled 114.5 billion euros in 2020 (figure 1). The health crisis linked to the Covid-19 pandemic led to a 34% drop compared to 2019, equivalent to 59.7 billion euros. The drop was almost double for non-residents in relation to résidents, representing a fall of -48% compared with -26%. In euro terms, resident tourists (-28.9 billion euros) and non-resident tourists (-30.8 billion euros) contributed in equal parts to the drop in internal tourism consumption.

Expenditure contracted by at least 40% in € at current prices in the accommodation services for visitors sector (-16.1 billion euros) – particularly in hotels (-9.8 billion euros) –, but also in passenger transport services (-16.0 billion euros) – to a large extent air transport (-12.4 billion euros) –, but also in food and beverage serving services (-7.5 billion euros). Tourist spending for cultural, sports and recreation services including travel agencies was reduced by half, falling to 9.0 billion euros in 2020.

The drop was slightly more limited – below 30% – for fuel and motorway tolls (-5.2 billion euros) and also for spending on other consumption products (-6.6 billion euros). In total, the only item spared was non-commercial tourist accommodation, spending on which was up by 400 million euros, equivalent to a rise of 1.9% in € at current prices compared with 2019.

As the prices of tourist goods and services were stable (-0.4% between 2020 and 2019), the drop in tourism expenditure can mainly be attributed to a drop in volume. Indeed, the volume of tourism goods and services fell by 34% on average.

In 2020, the tourism sector was more affected by the health crisis than any other economic sector. Internal tourism consumption, which covers all tourist expenditure (including purchasing of durable goods, secondary dwellings and professional expenditure) thus represented only 5.3% of GDP, compared with 7.5% in 2019.

Non-resident tourist expenditure accounted for 33.1 billion euros in 2020, almost half that of 2019 (63.9 billion euros) and all non-resident tourist expenditure items have dropped.

The principal non-resident tourism expenditure item, accommodation services for visitors, greatly contributed to the overall drop in tourist expenditure between 2019 and 2020, with a fall of -11.8 billion euros, of which -7.5 billion euros in the hotel sector.

Transport expenditure, another important item for non-residents with 6.2 billion euros in 2020, declined by half in one year. This drop was largely attributable to the reduction in air travel (-4.3 billion euros).

Within other goods and services expenditure, which represented 15% of non-resident tourist expenditure (figure 2), food and beverage accounted for 3.3 billion euros in expenditure, equivalent to 3.1 billion euros less than in 2019. In food and beverage serving services, the drop seen was -4.0 billion euros compared with 2019, and their sum total amounted to 3.7 billion euros in 2020.

Non-resident expenditure represented just 29% of internal tourism consumption, compared with 37% in 2019 (figure 3).

In 2020, resident tourism expenditure totalled 81.4 billion euros. This figure is one quarter lower compared to 2019 (110.3 billion euros). Tourism expenditure was down across all sectors, with the exception of non-commercial accommodation, which showed itself better able to withstand the crisis. In 2020, residents favoured trips with non-commercial accommodation over trips with commercial accommodation.

In 2020, some services could not be accessed for part of the year given the lockdowns and restrictions linked to the health crisis. Air transport and travel agencies were thus heavily affected. Indeed, spending on non-urban transport, which is relatively important for resident tourists, was down by 9.7 billion euros, of which 8.1 billion for air travel. Such transport represented 15% of resident tourism expenditure in 2020, equivalent to 12.7 billion euros. The tour operator and travel agency services sector lost 4.3 billion euros in tourism expenditure, for a total expenditure of 2.9 billion euros in 2020.

In addition, activity dropped greatly in other sectors, but to a lesser extent, thanks to a partial recovery in tourist activity during the course of the summer in 2020. Thus, in accommodation services for visitors, resident tourism expenditure dropped by 4.3 billion euros to reach 12.1 billion euros. Similarly, expenditure in fuel and tolls fell, as well as in food and beverage serving services (-3.5 billion euros for each sector), and in food and beverage (-1.4 billion euros).