On the eve of the Summer Olympics, the rush of travel to Paris begins
With the 2024 Summer Olympics just a few months away, travelers are already buying plane tickets to Paris and booking hotels in France.
Travel marketing platform Sojern has published the latest data on travel related to the games, which will take place from July 26 to August 11, 2024. According to the study, as of 2023, Paris has caught up with pre-pandemic tourism figures, and visitors began booking trips to France in November 2023, when tickets for the 2024 Olympic Games first went on sale, Bradenton.com reports.
"For the 2024 Olympic Games, airline bookings, not just searches, to Paris are up 125% compared to the same travel period last year," the report says.
The first round of ticket sales for the 2024 Olympics was sold through a lottery and sold out quickly. In November, the organizers issued more than 400,000 tickets.
The Sojern report also found that most travelers "plan to leave Paris on the day the Olympics end," with about 24% of bookings during the Olympic period coming from the United States.
Visitors from Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan and Spain are also actively booking trips for this year's Olympics.
Meanwhile, 49% of Parisians have begun planning an escape during the games, hoping to avoid the crowds.
The Sojern report found that city dwellers will travel to places like Lille, Nice, Corsica, Lyon, and Toulouse to relax.
As TravelWise wrote, the Olympics will increase prices for Parisian attractions and transportation.