Coronavirus a ‘catastrophe’ for Paris tourist industry
Rachid Saidi puts on a brave face at the Paris hotel he manages, forcing a smile even though the coronavirus outbreak threatens his livelihood as tourists avoid the City of Light.
Saidi runs the Monsieur Saintonge, afour-star hotel in the heart of the hip Marais district, which has seen bookings drop by 30-40 percent so far in March.
"It is a difficult period, but we must be strong... There's nothing else we can do," Saidi said as he pored over the bookings register.
"Despite cutting our prices in half... there has been no increase in reservations," he told AFP. "Even if we make the room price one euro ($1.13), I'm not sure that more people will come!" Hotels and restaurants across the city have been hit hard by fears over the virus, which has infected nearly 2,300 people in France and killed 48. Business travel has been particularly dented as major events are cancelled, including the International Tourism Trade show and Paris Book Fair.
The US government's ban on travel from Europe and its call for Americans to avoid overseas trips will only add to the pain.
The French capital and the surrounding Ile-de-France region saw 50 million visitors last year, spending a total of 22 billion euros ($24.8 billion), according to the CRT regional tourism committee.
The downturn comes as businesses in one of the world's most visited cities are still counting the costs of a historic public transport strike that crippled Paris for weeks on end, as well as months of anti-government "yellow vests" protests that often turned violent.
"It is starting to feel like catastrophe. It is worse than the strikes, worse than the yellow vests," Saidi told AFP.
An enormous bottle of sanitising hand gel sits on the reception counter, next to a tray of health ministry pamphlets on preventing the spread of the virus.
Staff have been instructed to intensify cleaning of the hotel's 22 rooms, "mainly to clean the door handles, to clean the remote controls well; everything that a client can touch with their hands," Saidi said, "and above all, to wash their hands every time they exit a room." Cleaners have been issued special gloves "and there are even some who wear masks," he added.
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