The 2024 Olympics were a success for Paris but a calamity for some businesses
Parisian business owners and hotel managers were promised a summer like no other
PARIS — Parisian business owners and hotel managers were promised a summer like no other. Millions of tourists would flood the French capital for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, generating huge profits for the region.
With the Games officially over, the time has come to run the numbers. And many in the Paris service industry say they had one of their worst summers ever — notably because of security restrictions around city-center Olympic venues.
Tom Denaive, who runs a jewelry store located between the Louvre Museum and Place de la Concorde — which hosted multiple Olympic events — said the season was nothing short of “dramatic.”
In mid-June, the city closed the nearest metro station, then access to the scenic Tuileries Garden. A week before the opening ceremony on the River Seine, the nearby rue de Rivoli, a major pedestrian and commercial artery, was shut down.
“It was a dead street,” Denaive said. “I felt like we were back to the COVID days.”
Even the Louvre Museum reported a 22% drop in visits during the Olympic Games, and a 45% drop during the two weeks leading up to the opening ceremony compared to the same period a year ago.
Disappointment was also felt steps away on rue Saint-Honoré, home to some of Paris’ most prestigious hotels and haute couture shops.
“I have all the records from last year and we didn’t match a single one,'' said Marina Orlando, store manager at French luxury candle brand Diptyque. Orlando said sales in August were down 29% year on year.
“We were given a whole serenade about the Olympics, that it was going to be incredible.… Some of us didn’t go on vacation, it was a huge logistical effort so that we could all
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