Informations Rapides · 9 November 2022 · n° 294

In Q3 2022, collective tourist attendance exceeded its pre-sanitary crisis level Tourism occupancy in hotels, campsites and holiday and other short-stay accommodation in metropolitan France - third quarter 2022

In the third quarter of 2022, occupancy in collective accommodation, measured in overnight stays, was 3.2% higher than its Q3 2019 level. Attendance was significantly higher than in 2019 in campsites (+6.2%). It also exceeded its 2019 level in hotels, but to a lesser extent (+1.3%). Attendance in holiday and other short-stay accommodations (HOSSA) yet remained below its pre-crisis level (-1.0%).

In the third quarter of 2022, for the first time since the sanitary crisis, hotel occupancy was higher than its 2019 level. It has been supported for more than a year by resident customers. Hotel nights by residents in Q3 2022 were thus 3.2% higher than in Q3 2019, being nearly 1.4 million additional overnight stays. Overnight stays by non-resident customers were slightly below its pre-crisis level (-1.7%, a drop of half a million overnight stays compared to 2019), with the return of almost all international customers.

Upscale hotels benefited hotel occupancy's improvement.In the third quarter of 2022, overnight stays rised in 4 and 5 stars hotels (+8.2% compared to the third quarter of 2019) and, to a lesser extent, in 3 stars hotels (+3.9%).On the other hand, attendance still declined in 1 and 2 stars hotels (-7.9%) and unclassified ones (-5.3%).

Attendance by resident customers sharply increased in 4 and 5 stars hotels, compared to 2019. Such hotels may have benefited from stays by residents, who used to travel abroad before crisis and turned to domestic tourism in upscale hotels during summer of 2022.

With nearly 16 million overnight stays, attendance were particularly strong in coastlines hotels (+2.7% compared to 2019). Hotel occupancy came back to its 2019 level in urban areas, in both Île-de-France and provincial urban areas.

Attendance by resident customers was sustained in overseas departments (+9.6% compared to the third quarter of 2019) and ski mountain areas (+7.4%), and more than offsetting the non-resident occupancy decline.

Business attendance, less significant in summertime, partially recovered from sanitary crisis. Business overnight stays were thus down 3.2% in the third quarter of 2022 compared to the same period in 2019. The drop remained particularly significant in Île-de-France (-13.8%, or 1.1 million business nights fewer).

Overnight stays by non-resident customers have been fewer in metropolitan hotels since sanitary crisis (-1.7%). Although still below its pre-crisis level, attendance in the third quarter of 2022 confirmed the return of british (-6.0% compared to 2019) and american (-2.3%) customers. In addition, tourists from countries within driving distance returned to hotels. This is particularly the case for tourists from Germany, whose overnight stays increased by 10.3% compared to 2019, from Belgium (+5.8%) and especially from the Netherlands (+40.8%). Customers from Northern and Eastern Europe probably traveled more to Western tourist destinations such as France, in a context of war in Ukraine and Eastern Europe concerns. On the other hand, the drop in non-European country's attendance (excluding the United States of America) remained significant, specially from Asia, as travel restrictions lasted all summer in several Far Eastern countries, such as China and Japan.

Domestic customer's comeback was not enough to restore pre-crisis attendance in holiday and other short-stay accommodations. Overnight stays remained slightly down in the third quarter of 2022 (-1.0% compared to the third quarter of 2019). Specially in tourist residences, the increase in resident attendance (+2.1%) did not offset the disaffection of non-resident customers (-13.6%).

Following two years of sanitary crisis disappointing attendances (-15.6% in the third quarter of 2020 and -0.8% in the third quarter of 2021, compared to the third quarter of 2019), French campsites exceeded by 6.2% their pre-crisis attendance level in the third quarter of 2022. This represented 102 million overnight stays between July and September 2022. Campsites mostly benefited from a sharp increase in attendance by resident tourists (+8.1%), and to a lesser extent, from more significant non-resident tourism than in 2019 (+1.5%).

With nearly 59 million overnight stays in campsites, the coastlines remained the main destination for this type of accommodation, and attendance by both residents and non-residents rised sharply. Campsites further from the coastlines also benefited from a sustained return from resident customers.