While hotel reservations are down by 1.9% and international air traffic is down by 7.8% for November and December compared to forecasts for 2025, Paris Tourism is still expecting 40 million visitors to come to the destination in 2026 (+0.9% compared to 2025). This is despite the impact of social protests in the autumn against the increasing living costs.
International air traffic has been impacted by the downturn in bookings, but this has affected different source markets to differing degrees. The most affected markets have been Italy, which is down 30.1%, followed by South Korea (-17%), Japan (-12.3%), United States (-11.7%) and Australia (-11.5%). Spain has seen a slight fall (-6.1%). Some markets have seen growth, with Mexico up 13.2%, Brazil up 2% and Canada up 0.4%.
Although demand has been impacted by the social protests, it is not possible to make a direct correlation between the data and the protests, according to the Observatory. Industry experts have noted that this trend of cancellations is now reversing and that the expected fall for November and December had already been accounted for in previous estimates.
However, September has seen positive figures with hotel occupancy in the city up to 89.1%, an increase of 2.3% compared to 2015. The capital welcomed around 3.2 million tourists and there was an 8.3% increase in inbound tourism in the first three weeks of October.
Strong conference and trade fair activity, combined with high-profile international events like Céline Dion concerts and the visit of Pope Leo XIV helped drive performance.
Despite the demand indicators suggesting a downturn for the last two months of the year, Paris tourism is still expecting 40 million visitors in 2026.
