Informations Rapides · 11 May 2022 · n° 123

In Q1 2022, collective tourist attendance was 11.3% lower than in Q1 2019 Tourism occupancy in hotels, campsites and holiday and other short-stay accommodation in metropolitan France - first quarter 2022

In the first quarter of 2022, occupancy in collective accommodation -except for campsites, measured in overnight stays, was 11.3% lower than its level in the first quarter of 2019. Attendance fell by 16.4% in hotels and 1.2% in holiday and other shortstay accommodation (HOSSA).

Hotel occupancy by resident customers in France remains below its pre-crisis level (−7.1%, making −2.0 million overnight stays) but non-resident occupancy remains far below (−36.7%, −5.0 million overnight stays).

Attendance decline in all categories of hotels, yet less significantly in high-end hotels. Occupancy decline by 21.1% in 1 and 2 stars hotels, by 23.6% for unclassified hotels compared to pre-crisis levels: in these categories the sharp fall in non-resident occupancy is combined with a significant decline in overnight stays by resident customers. Overnight stays in 3 stars hotels remain 12.3% lower than in the first quarter of 2019, those in 4 and 5 stars hotels by 14.6%. In these hotels, resident customers’s occupancy retains non-resident customers’s disaffection. Overnight stays even slightly increased in 4 and 5 star hotels (+2.3% compared to 2019).

In the first quarter of 2022, hotel occupancy is lower than in the first quarter of 2019 in all territories. The decrease is mainly located in Île-de-France (−3.9 million overnight stays in a national decrease of 7.0 million), suffering disaffection of non-resident customers and business attendance only partially coming back. More than a quarter of overnight stays are missing compared to Île-de-France first quarter of 2019’s level.

Attendance also remains below its pre-crisis level in mountains areas (−3.1%) and coastlines (−6.4%), but resident customers coming back (respectively +10.1% and +2.6% compared to the first quarter of 2019) restrained the fall in overnight stays by non-residents.

Overnight stays declined by −20.1% in business attendance, losing its importance even though still accounts for almost half of hotel overnight stays. Occupancy declined sharply in Île-de-France (−31.5%).

In the first quarter of 2022, in metropolitan France, hotel nights by European customers remained below those of the first quarter of 2019 (−27.1%), yet the decline was much less significant than non-european’s (−53.7%). Occupancy from the United Kingdom was almost twice as low as in the first quarter of 2019 (−44.6%). The fall in German customers’s overnights was also sharp (−30.0%).

On the other hand, Dutch customers are coming back in hotels (+16.0% for Dutch overnight stays compared to the first quarter of 2019).

The decline in occupancy compared to the first quarter of 2019 is much less stronger in holidays and other shortstay accommodations (HOSSA) (−1.2%). The rise (+1.4%) of resident attendance, traditionally the most important one, almost offset the decline in non-residents’s overnight stays (−12.4%).

In tourism residences, attendance even came back to its pre-crisis level (+1.0% compared to the first quarter of 2019). Coastline areas (+16.4%) and, in a lesser extent, mountains areas (+1.4%) mainly benefit this recovery. In the latter, attendance by non-resident customers was 3.2% higher than in the first quarter of 2019. On the other hand, these customers are still missing in urban areas, particularly in Île-de-France (−48, 5% compared to the first quarter of 2019). Therefore, overnight stays in HOSSA fell sharply (−20.1%) in this area.