Published on •Updated
Images of the riots in France, broadcast around the world, are alarming tourism professionals. The first consequences are already being felt in hotel bookings, and those in the sector fear the situation will worsen if the violence continues.
“This surge in violence in city centres, in Nice, Paris and Lyon, is catastrophic”, laments Christelle Cassagne, head of ADN Tourisme, a federation that brings together France’s institutional tourism bodies.
“When you book a hotel for a week, it is not to stay shut away in your room”, she adds.
Tourists hesitant to go ahead with their stay
In Paris, the closure of the Louvre museum on Monday because of a student gathering at its entrance also frustrated many tourists who had come to discover the famous museum.
In this tense climate, some travellers are reconsidering their stay in the capital.
According to MKG Consulting, the first effects are already visible, with Parisian hotels reporting a slowdown in bookings for the next six weeks.
In the space of just 24 hours, between 19 and 20 October, their lead over the same period in 2025 narrowed significantly, dropping from 1 to 0.2 percentage points for stays scheduled from 20 to 29 October, and from 3.5 to 1.9 points for those from 20 to 25 October.
Fear of fresh riots weighs on tourism
According to Didier Arino, director of the consultancy Protourisme, the scale of the repercussions will depend mainly on whether the unrest continues. A single day of riots in Paris is thought to have triggered the cancellation of around 1% of bookings for the month, still a relatively limited impact.
“The further customers travel, the more sensitive they are to security risks, and the greater the consequences”, he points out.
The United States, China and Germany are among the countries that have issued warnings to their nationals planning to travel to France.
These advisories could particularly weigh on arrivals of American and Asian tourists, whose spending is generally higher than that of European visitors.
“If this lasts for two weeks, it is not very serious. But if it continues for several months, it will be catastrophic”, warns Laurent Abitbol, chairman of the management board of the Selectour travel agency network.