Closed since October 30 due to the health crisis; the Eiffel Tower will reopen to the public on July 16. The monument will resort to a recapitalization in the face of the 120 million deficit forecast for 2020 and 2021.
Deprived of tourists for seven months already and faced with the puzzle of a suspended painting site due to traces of lead above the regulatory threshold, the “iron lady” lives a “Difficult period to go through”, recognizes the president of his operating company (SETE) Jean-François Martins in an interview with Agence France-Presse on Thursday, May 21.
Despite the efforts to “Reduce fixed costs” and massive recourse to partial unemployment among its 350 employees, the operator projects for 2021 a loss of around 70 million euros, after having announced in March a deficit of 52 million for 2020. Year in which its figure of business has melted from 99 to 25 million euros, again according to SETE.
However, the operator does not “No long-term worry” and excludes any threat to employment. “The full support of our shareholder” principal, the City of Paris, “Will allow us to spend the period”, assures Mr. Martins. “This will necessarily take the form of a recapitalization” in the fall, he announced, the two consecutive deficits not being “Not absorbable on equity”.
Loss of 120 million over two years
“The monument which embodies France in the world, which loses 120 million over two years, has not received any specific or exceptional aid from the State. “, has, in addition, specified Mr. Martins, elected Socialist to the Council of Paris.
The famous monument, which welcomed up to 7 million visitors in 2014 and another 6.2 million in 2019, had to close from mid-March to the end of June 2020, during the first confinement, then again from the end of October .
132 years old, the “great lady” will therefore have to wait a few more weeks before finding the public. “The time needed to get back in order and up and running”, in particular the elevators, explains Mr. Martins, but also of “Freeing up the spaces taken up by the painting site”, suspended.
The reception capacity will be 10,000 visitors per day this summer, ie the same level of attendance as in summer 2020, against 25,000 before the crisis. Double cabins that can accommodate 50 people each will operate with a 50% gauge to respect social distancing.
The ticket office will reopen on 1er June, SETE relying on two-thirds of online reservations. The physical sale of tickets at the foot of the monument will remain possible when it reopens. All the floors will be accessible to the public, apart from a few construction areas, particularly on the second floor.
Hanging painting site
Suspended since the beginning of February due to traces of lead above the regulatory threshold, the painting project in progress will not resume until the fall, time to complete the studies and choose among the techniques “The least emissive of lead”, explained Mr. Martins.
For the 20e painting campaign, which should allow the “iron lady” to have a facelift for the 2024 Olympic Games, it was decided to remove the deteriorated layers of paint from nearly 30% of the surface of the building, there where previous campaigns provided for only 5%, in order to “To improve the adhesion of the paint to the structure”. It is this stripping which brought out, on the site, the presence of lead present in the preceding layers.
With the worksite at a standstill, SETE excludes any risk of lead contamination for visitors. At the time of reopening, “The tower will have been completely decontaminated, cleaned”, underlines Mr. Martins for whom “The health authorities are the guarantors” with 70 samples taken per week.
Visible from afar, the threads which collect the paint scales will be gradually removed. The next challenge for SETE will be to “Reimagine how to bring visitors despite the various projects in progress”.