This summer, the French live with it. With the virus, with the restrictions, with the masks and now with the health pass. In the summer of 2020, the Quiberon peninsula emptied at the end of July, when the media rushed to this first cluster of the second wave of Covid-19. The South-East had also suffered at the end of the summer. But a year has passed, the vaccine has arrived and the tourist departments today affected by an epidemic rebound seem not to know of generalized disaffection.
For the Landes, the fourth wave arrived a bit early. At the end of June, when reservations are still being taken. Summer attendance was expected to be almost equivalent to that of 2019, but the highly publicized visit of Jean Castex and Olivier Véran to Mont-de-Marsan on June 23 caused an immediate drop in reservations. All the more understandable that it was accompanied by a postponement of deconfinement.
“The announcements did not generate a lot of cancellations but stopped last minute bookings, which in certain sectors, and in particular in the hotel industry, constitute an important part of attendance”, explains Sandy Causse, director of the departmental tourism committee. In his two hotels in Hossegor, Alain Bretelle, president of the local Union of Trades and Hospitality Industries (UMIH), notices instability: “We are full, we have cancellations, then we become full again before new announcements. [Les vacanciers] don’t really know, they are like us. They play with the possibilities of cancellation. “
Complete campsites and lodgings
Overall, the health pressure weighed little on the Landes, a popular department whose campsites were full as of June, and where each cancellation is quickly a happy one. The Gîtes de France recorded occupancy rates of 85% to 90% in the first weeks of July, despite the media impact of the clusters. In August, all the lodgings are full.
The new departments in red on the epidemiological maps, all overcrowded vacation spots in August, will they also be immune to a wave of cancellations? If hospitalizations remain limited everywhere, the epidemic is blazing in the Pyrénées-Orientales, Haute-Corse, Hérault, Alpes-Maritimes or Charente-Maritime. The figures reflect a partial reality in these tourist areas, because they only include residents of the department and not passing tourists.
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