Drop in the visitor numbers for Paris Summer Olympics? Know more about the latest travel updates

Many people including residents are avoiding Paris this summer, despite prognostications that a travel boom was all but assured.

It's a common misconception that host cities see an explosion of travelers around the Olympic Games, said John Grant, chief analyst at the aviation intelligence company OAG.

The phenomena of the Olympics is that the local market doesn't travel, he said.

Plus the regular business traveler who would normally be traveling during that moment in time, stops [and] stays at home.

London, Athens and Atlanta all saw a drop in summer visitors when they hosted the Summer Games, said Grant.

Big losses by key airlines

AirFrance-KLM on Thursday announced the company is anticipating a third-quarter hit to its unit revenues of 150-170 million Euros ($163-184 million) because of lackluster demand to visit Paris this summer.

Air France flagged problems earlier this month, announcing on July 1 that traffic to and from Paris was lagging behind other major European cities.

The tourism board is also expecting an 11% increase in arrivals during the Games, spurred by visitors from Europe (+24%) and North America (+15%) but offset by sharp drops in arrivals from the Middle East (-42%) and Oceania (-30%).

Empty Airbnbs and unsold ticketsHotels, too, are feeling the pinch of Paris' summer slowdown, with occupancy rates expected to drop to 60% in early July, down some 10 points from 2023, according to Paris' tourism board.

Like the airlines, many hotels raised rates to take advantage of the tourism bump, only to discount them following a spring season of slow bookings.

Still, average rates are up nearly 70% this July, from 202 euros last year to 342 euros during the Olympic period, Paris' tourism board said.

Estimates from the travel price comparison website Trivago show rates have jumped even more, up 85% year on year in Paris, and 131% in Lille, which is hosting some of the Games' basketball and handballs competitions.

Airbnb said listings in Paris reached an all-time high this summer, as enterprising Parisians jumped at the chance to simultaneously escape the crowds and cash in on sports tourists' propensity to spend.

Airbnb told the news channel that tens of thousands of people in host cities had opened their homes for the first time. But the company declined to say the number of listings that remained unbooked during the Games.