From stable to slightly positive in the first quarter, the trend becomes clearly upward in the month of April.
The recovery is impressive in the aviation sector, with a 27% rebound in total traffic at Nice Côte d’Azur Airport, erasing the “air pocket” caused by last year’s Icelandic volcanic disruptions, and a 44% growth for visitors who stayed on the Côte d’Azur (+3.5% compared to April 2009).
The evolution in demand is mainly due to the return of foreign clients, visiting for leisure or business reasons. Stays by airplane show a new increase of 59% compared to 2010 and 23% compared to 2009.
This volume of stays is the highest ever recorded, thus reaching an absolute record.
The massive return of foreign clients to the Côte d’Azur is confirmed by a 15% gain for foreign overnight stays in hotels and residences in April. This is the best result for this month since 2006.
From January to April, the cumulative gain is 12% for foreign overnight stays. Most foreign markets are on the rise, notably Italy, which gains 16%, and even the British market, which had lost 39% over this period between 2005 and 2010, finally shows a recovery of 4%.
Furthermore, prospects are very good for May, conducive to short cultural and event stays, and the recovery should thus be confirmed.
