While tourist flows to the French Riviera regained a good level as early as 2010, the level of visitor spending remained rather low and the recovery modest, with only a +3% increase in average daily expenditure in 2010. For the first quarter of 2011, foreign visitors seem to have tipped the balance to the positive side!
In the first quarter of 2011, we finally observe a true increase in consumption levels: the average daily expenditure of air visitors increased by 13% to 72 euros. This result is quite satisfactory and close to the level of the first quarter of 2000, a good year, but still well below that of the prosperous years, namely 2002 to 2006.
After a somewhat sluggish start to the year, the month of March finally shows a clear upward trend. This is a very encouraging sign for this month, which sets the tone for the spring-summer season and the approach of the summer season.
The visitor flow to tourist offices increased by 22%, almost reaching the level of the months of March from 2006 to 2008. There is also strong growth in the volume of air stays ending this month, with a 16% jump, allowing us to return to the level of March 2006-7. More than a third of air stays this month were for professional reasons. This trend concerns only the “incoming tourism” category as the purpose of passenger trips, compared with the overall traffic increase of Nice airport, which rose by more than 6% this month.
In tourist sites, we see the same significantly positive trend. The total number of admissions to museums and monuments increased by 14%, almost completely offsetting the decline of 2010.
With a positive but more moderate trend, accommodations also benefit from the return of clientele. Hotels recorded an average occupancy rate of 46%, achieving a 2-point gain in occupancy and a 7% increase in total overnight stays. However, it should be noted that between 2006 and 2008, occupancy in March exceeded 50%.
Residences, on the other hand, had a 60% occupancy rate, a very good rate, almost identical to that of March 2010, with an overall volume of overnight stays increasing by 1%. Gîtes de France also observed a 15% increase in overnight stays.
Once again, foreign markets drove growth this month. The total number of foreign overnight stays in hotels and residences increased by 9% (and even 20% compared to March 2009), while French overnight stays increased only by 1% (+10% compared to 2009). Foreign air stays increased by 10%.
This positive trend is exclusively due to foreign visitors, whose average spending increased by 23% to 83 euros per day (their spending per stay rose by 11% to 668 euros). French spending remained stable at around 55 euros per day. The gap thus begins to widen again between the two types of clientele. For visitors staying in commercial accommodations, spending increased by 27%, and the daily budget reached 128 euros. In other accommodations, spending remained stable at 43 euros.
The consumption recovery is finally much more pronounced for business visitors, while leisure clients still have constrained budgets. Thus, business visitors spent 157 euros per day in the first quarter (a gain of nearly 50 euros), whereas the daily spending of leisure visitors only increased by 6% to 55 euros.
