July almost reached full capacity on the Azure coast. All indicators are green with an average increase of about 10% compared to July 2010.
The total number of visitors welcomed at tourist offices increased by +8%, erasing the loss observed last year in July.
The best trend is observed in the volume of stays by plane ending in July, which increased by 16%. This is the best result since July 2008.
This development only concerns the “inbound tourism” category as a reason for passengers’ travel, compared to the total traffic evolution at Nice Côte d’Azur airport, which increased by more than 8% this month.
At visitor sites, the recovery initiated in June is gaining strength this month with a 9% increase in entries.
The total number of entries in July thus reached a record never matched before. Attendance at parks and gardens also increased by 15%, approaching the best levels reached between 2007 and 2009.
In accommodations, the hotel industry is benefiting from demand changes this summer.
The average hotel occupancy thus reached 84% for the month, a rate never observed in the past.
The total hotel overnight stays increased by 9%,
which is the best result in July since the record reached in 2001. All categories benefited, especially the 2* and 4-5* hotels.
In residences, occupancy gained 1 point to 83%, and visits in overnight stays remained stable.
The total overnight stays in hotels and residences increased by nearly 6% in July, almost reaching the record level of July 2001.
The gap is now only 8.5% from that record level, and July 2011 is now the second-best July ever recorded on the Côte d’Azur in terms of overnight stays in commercial accommodations.
The influx of foreign clients, whose overnight stays increased by 12%, is producing this excellent result, while French overnight stays decreased by 3% in hotels and residences. Even the British clientele, which had been sharply declining since 2005, is making a strong return with a +20% increase over June-July.
Since the beginning of the year, the trend has been very favorable in the air visitors segment, and more generally for air transport at the international airport of Nice-Côte d’Azur.
In July, thanks to an 8% increase, the record for the busiest month in terms of commercial traffic at Nice-Côte d’Azur was broken with more than 1.2 million passengers (the previous record dated from July 2008), and the previous record for the busiest day was also surpassed on July 30, 2011!
Tourists staying on the Côte d’Azur largely contributed to this remarkable performance.
They accounted for 56% of all departing passengers in July (22% of passengers were residents of the Alpes-Maritimes, 13% were visitors from other departments of the Region).
Thus, the volume of air stays on the Côte d’Azur increased by 16% in July, reaching a total of 324,000 stays, very close to the previous absolute record of July 2008.
If nearly three-quarters of these stays were made by foreigners, French air stays also increased significantly, particularly due to a significant flow of visits to relatives and friends.
These air visitors most frequently stayed in Nice (40% of stays compared to 34% in July 2010), Cannes-Mandelieu (18%), Antibes (13%), in the Grasse-Vence mid-country (7.5%), or in the Principality of Monaco (7%). In other areas, and particularly in the mountains and in Menton, clients preferred other modes of transportation.
Record summer for Nice Côte d’Azur Airport
With passenger traffic (6,033,000) up 10.2% cumulatively at the end of July, Nice Côte d’Azur Airport is recording attendance records.
After a difficult year in 2010 due to many uncertainties, traffic recovery is very present at this end of summer 2011, and Nice Côte d’Azur Airport is experiencing a real improvement.
International traffic, which represents 60% of total traffic, shows double-digit growth: +10.8% in July with very good performances in some countries like Sweden (+43.8%), Norway (+23.4%), the Netherlands (+21.7%), or Italy (+20.8%), due to an increase in seating capacities.
The United Kingdom, which ended 2010 with variations of around -20%, is recovering with a traffic growth of +10.4%. On the other hand, Ireland is still experiencing some difficulties with traffic at -1.6%.
It is also worth noting the record number of 105 direct destinations departing from Nice operated by 59 companies this summer.
The 3 records of summer 2011
July appears as the month of all records with:
1- the record for commercial passengers in one day: 43,762 on Saturday, July 30 (previous record: 43,320 passengers on Sunday, June 4, 2000, during the Monaco Grand Prix).
2- the record for the busiest month with 1,218,501 passengers (previous record: 1,175,481 passengers in July 2007).
3- the record for the best monthly occupancy rate in July: 80.2% on regular traffic (previous record of 79.7% in July 2010).
