IThey had been waiting for this for many months, even years. As reported The Parisianthe arrival of spring has allowed the capital’s most emblematic monuments to regain their 2019 attendance figures, before the health crisis which heavily impacted the sector with multiple restrictions, but also and above all economic health.
At the Musée d’Orsay, between 11,000 and 15,000 visitors have been counted daily since the beginning of April, only 13% less than at the same time in 2019. The same goes for the Musée de l’Orangerie, which hosts every day 4,000 tourists come to contemplate its walls. The Center Pompidou even manages to do better since it welcomes more people than before the succession of epidemic waves. 869,480 tickets were sold there from October to December 2021, compared to 784,828 over the same period in 2019.
For the first time since 2019, the Petit Palais has seen access to one of its exhibitions, dedicated to the Finnish painter Edelfelt, be possible only by reservation on Fridays and weekends. Proof that the culture sector is doing well as summer approaches.
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Asian tourists are still missing
As far as the most visited places are concerned, some drawbacks should nevertheless be highlighted. If the Louvre has been able to count on the gradual return of American customers, the first nationality among tourists, and close Europeans, who have again dethroned the French in recent months, some regulars are still missing. The largest museum in the world indeed notes an almost total absence of Asian tourists, who constituted a significant part of the 9.6 million visitors in 2019, recall our colleagues.
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Same story on the side of the Palace of Versailles: “The Chinese represented the second nationality of visitors after the Americans, and they did not return”, deplores a spokesperson, who underlines that attendance is down by almost 50 % compared to 2019.
The Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe, meanwhile, saw their attendance return to 80% and 85% of their pre-Covid activity, largely helped by the Easter holidays and the influx of French and European visitors. Like the Center Pompidou, the Panthéon saw visitor numbers increase, up 7%. “We did not expect such a rapid turnaround. Our forecasts were rather counting on 2023 or 2024”, rejoices Philippe Bélaval, the boss of the Center des monuments nationaux, at the Parisian.
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