The distinctly positive trend observed during the summer season continued in October. For the first time since 2002, the total volume of overnight stays in hotels and residences exceeded the one million mark in October, thanks to a 12% surge. This growth involves both French and foreign clientele.
After a decline in 2010, visits to Tourist Offices have increased by 4%. The total number of air travel stays, which had risen sharply in October 2010, remains stable this month, but it represents a new record for this month following that of last year. The average duration of air travel stays in October also remained stable at 6.7 nights.
In October, 28% of air travel stays were for business reasons (33% in 2010). While the business travel share remained strong among September stays, it has significantly declined in October over the years.
This trend concerns only the “incoming tourism” category as a reason for passenger travel, in contrast to the total traffic evolution at Nice Cรดte d’Azur airport, which increased by over 6% this month.
In visitor sites, a 5% increase in total entries marks record visitation for this month, surpassing the last peak recorded in October 2002. This can be attributed to a significant rise at the main site (the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco), representing more than one in five entries, combined with high attendance at the average of other sites on the French Riviera. In parks and gardens, there’s also a 7% growth.
Accommodations have greatly benefited from the recovery.
Hotel occupancy rises 5 points to 60%, with total overnight stays increasing by 12%. The threshold of 700,000 hotel overnight stays in October is crossed for the first time since 2003.
Tourist residence occupancy gains 1 point to 61%, a very good level for this month. The total overnight stays in residences increased by 14%.
The Eurozone is undergoing an institutional and financial crisis that is dampening tourism demand in 2011. While remaining a significant source market for the Cรดte d’Azur, the zone and its constituent tourism markets see their relative share decrease in 2011.
Outside the Eurozone, the tourism markets for the Cรดte d’Azur are, in order: United Kingdom (25% of hotel and residence overnight stays in 2011 from non-Eurozone markets), United States (13.5%), Russia (11.3%), Scandinavia excluding Finland (9.4%), Switzerland (8.1%), Eastern Europe excluding Slovenia-Slovakia (7.9%), Asia excluding Japan (5.5%), Middle East/Turkey (4.4%), Canada (3.6%), South America (3.6%), Australia-Oceania (3.5%), Japan (2.3%), and Africa (1.5%).
Overall, these thirteen external markets represented, between January and October 2011, 32.4% of the total hotel and residence overnight stays, compared to 28.4% over the same period in 2010.
In 2011, all these markets without exception saw their demand increase. The average increase recorded across these markets is 21%, in contrast to the gloomy stagnation of demand from the Eurozone (except for Finland and Spain, which experienced strong growth).
Among the most positive trends, the most notable are the explosion of Chinese demand (+85%), the strong growth from Australia (+68%), South America (+54%), other Asian countries excluding China-Japan (+47%), and Turkey (+43%), as well as very high increases for Russia (+36%), Switzerland (+30%), and Norway (+27%). There is also a remarkable comeback of Brits, with a 27% increase over 2010, returning to their 2009 volume, as well as Americans (+9%, returning to 2007 levels) and Canadians (+21%, reaching 2003 levels).
