Tourism in the region: “They are sharing dishes and ice creams” … The purchasing power at half mast, professionals are gray

It is urgent to wait! We will do the accounts at the end of September. The month of August, for regional tourism, can bring up the slope. But if June had been pretty good, with a bright sun and impressive heat part of the month, July looked gray.

This is noted by the Cap d’Agde Méditerranée tourism office, which recorded a – 10 % last month compared to July 2024, on the basis of mobile phone balances (Orange vision flow). “”It is the trend everywhere in France, the July Tsunami no longer exists, we have a rising tide with a progressive filling and fragmented stays, only August still knows the wave“, insists the director of the office, Hugo Alvarez.

They are mainly hoteliers and restaurateurs, “suffering“, Toast, he continues: “People switch to the rental to control their meal budgets“.

In Grau-du-Roi, down nights but stable day visits

The territory of the Metropolis of Montpellier displays a – 4 % on nights compared to July 2024. Day visits are stable. In Grau-du-Roi, in the Gard, it is basically the opposite: nights of the same order but day visits dropped by 6 %. Stéphanie Aillet, the director of the Tourist Office, relativizes: “It is not at all catastrophic. Knowing that the filling rates of professional accommodation (for those who lend themselves to the game, editor’s note) are stable, as for the Yelloh Village and Espiguette campsites, you can take a positive assessment of this early summer. It’s not all over. August is always more efficient, as well as September.“

“Where it fishes is at the level of restaurateurssays Stéphanie Aillet. Family budgets are tight. People have not sacrificed the holidays but sacrifice leisure during the holidays.“The director evokes an underway national tourist survey responsible for detailing price positions on coastlines and mountain … To better educate professionals, she says, reflects on their prices.

“They consume much less in terms of restaurants”

In Nîmes, the visit of the arenas attracted roughly the same crowd, with 57,000 people (-0.7 %), double the square house (24,400,-7.4 %) as of the Magne tower (26,500, + 32 %). The total number of nights amounts to 171,275, an increase of 1 % compared to July 2024. Regarding day visits, they are of just over 590,000 (-1.39 %) … A stability that another city carrying a rich heritage, Carcassonne. “We have the same attendance as in July 2024, on the other hand tourists consume much less in terms of restaurants, bars and shops, they are sharing dishes and ice, or opt for bread and ham rather than catering“, Assures Muriel Brunet, the director of the Carcassonne tourist office.”For guided tours of the city, we are in positive, people do not pissed off the heritage discovery budgets“, She is delighted. The visits to the Comtal Château itself are at the same level as last year, assures its administrator, Franck Doucet.

The well-filled Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert car park

In Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert, the mayor is rather satisfied. “”After three years of decline, the village car park recorded a + 4 % in July, Note Robert Siegel. If we have lost between 3 % and 5 % by comparing for the months of full season the three years before COVID and the three years later, we record in the parking lot one + 25 % over the whole year. ” The seasonal wings, as they say in tourist jargon, that is to say the periods of hollow in the spring and in the fall, are now filled.

In July 2024, the Olympic Games had slowed attendance a little. This year, this is the prospect of more tense months or years around the state budget that may tend to slow down the dynamics. What to add “A month of July in the weather side on the weather side”Constate Robert Siegel. “There was not many people when it was very hot and then when the tourists were too cold on the coast, they came to us. Merchants complain about the crowds but it is never enough for them, I understand it. They tend to retain only on days when it did not work at all. “

The Grand Pic Saint-Loup Tourist Office recorded an increase of a thousand hikers on the hiking trail of Pic Saint Loup from Cazevieille: 8,547 people last month against 7,453 people in July 2024. But down nights: 239,000 recorded, against 288,000 in July 2024 (-13.5 %). “”Tourist activity was very calm until July 14“, Specifies the office.

The primordial role of the weather

Higher in the hinterland, in Lozère, the Vébron film festival broke its crowd with 6,000 visitors in five days at the end of July. Bad weather has surely played, as is the gratuitousness that tourists are more and more fond of.

Not far, on the Causse Méjean, the fall in attendance was “Of the order of 20 % compared to last year for spring and June“, We confide in Aven Armand. July started to rise thanks to a colder period”where tourists, in particular Dutch, did not bathe “ in the Tarn gorges. And opted for the visit of cave.