France is readying itself for the full tourism recovery with a significant refurbishment of its hotel offerings – with $2.5bn having been invested in new hotel projects and more than 90 individual premium hotel sites (with more than 14,200 rooms) currently in the pipeline.
Paris, alone, has more than 30 premium hotels on the way; Nantes has eight and Bordeaux has five.
The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) recently forecast that France’s tourism industry should return to pre-pandemic levels this year and actually eclipse 2019 growth levels.
Tourism’s contribution to French GDP could be as much as €216bn this year, the WTTC said. The Council also ranked Paris as the most powerful city destination in the world, with the city’s tourism sector worth a cool $36bn at the end of last year.
Hilton, Radisson, IHG and Accor are the big hotel names battling for tourism spend in France, industry database Top Hotel Projects (THP) said.
