Paris 2024: a parliamentary report highlights the uncertainties on the touristic effects of the Games

There is an urgent need to calm the social climate. A little over a year before the start of the Olympic Games, on July 26, 2024, this is one of the messages that the deputies Stéphane Peu (French Communist Party, Seine-Saint-Denis) want to convey to the public authorities. and Stéphane Mazars (Renaissance, Aveyron) who submitted, on Wednesday July 5, an information report on the fallout from the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games (JOP), comprising around fifty recommendations.

The Games are not only the organization of sporting events, they are also, and above all, the prospect of economic benefits. In particular through the influx of visitors, which “will condition a significant part of [these] benefits for Ile-de-France and, to a lesser extent, for the whole of the national territory”, underline the two parliamentarians. However, the social context could weigh heavily. There were already tensions around the pension reform. With the urban violence that engulfed a large number of cities in France for several days after the death of Nahel M., in Nanterre, on June 27, during an arrest by the police, the context has singularly evolved: these events have led to a wave of cancellations of hotel reservations with foreign customers, noted the Union of trades in the hotel industry.

Nearly 16 million tourists, 90% French, are expected in Ile-de-France during the Olympic and Paralympic periods, including less than 4 million with tickets for the competitions – more than 40 million tourists visit the capital each year . In 2017, the Center for Sports Law and Economics of Limoges evaluated, recall MM. Peu and Mazars, the “global impact” of the Games: between 5.3 billion and 10.7 billion euros, including 1.43 billion to 3.52 billion for tourism benefits alone. In a February note, the Paris Convention and Visitors Bureau estimated visitor spending for the Games at 2.6 billion euros, excluding ticketing.

One unknown remains: the push-back effect that the Games could also have on tourists who are not very fond of the Olympic rings – due to the inconvenience caused (difficulties in traffic, increase in prices, etc.) -, in particular the high-end clientele. How many will be dissuaded, in the summer of 2024, from visiting Paris, crowned once again in 2022 as the world’s leading tourist destination?

Call for better coordination

But the two parliamentarians, “favorable to the organization of the Games”, want to reassure. “The images are going to be stunning and will be seen by billions of viewers. There will be an immediate effect, and Paris will continue to benefit from it after 2024 ”, wants to believe Stéphane Mazars.

Be that as it may, to capitalize on the Olympics effect, the two deputies call on the State, the stakeholders in the Games, the communities and the professionals of tourism in the Ile-de-France region to coordinate better to “enhance the whole of the national territory. to an audience that came mainly for “the Olympic spectacle”. The representatives of the hotel and catering industry “have in this regard expressed a certain number of concerns about the lack of anticipation of the Cojop, the City of Paris and the State, potentially detrimental to the tourist success of the ‘event,’ MEPs point out.

MM. Mazars and Peu also want to take advantage of the Games “to modify the legal framework applicable to furnished tourist accommodation”. The Airbnb platform, a partner of the International Olympic Committee, is particularly targeted, with which “hoteliers do not fight on equal terms”, they recall. The deputies propose to reduce “the ceiling of one hundred and twenty days of rental authorized to ninety or even sixty days for main residences” and to “subject all rentals of furnished tourist accommodation to VAT”.

They also want the creation, during the summer of 2024, of an “Olympic tourism observatory” to estimate the expected economic benefits.

Exceeded objectives in terms of integration

In the immediate future, the two deputies, whose report takes up the alerts they had issued in February on security and transport – “two major sources of concern for the smooth running of the Games” – consider that the Games benefit rather to the population of the department of Seine-Saint-Denis and Paris, where the main investments are concentrated.

Welcoming the fact that a social charter was adopted in 2018 to make the event a “laboratory for social and economic innovation” and guarantee “exemplary” working conditions, the parliamentarians particularly praise Solideo’s efforts in terms of professional integration. The public company responsible for the delivery of the Olympic works thus plans to reserve 10% of the hours worked for people far from employment, work-study or residents of priority neighborhoods. As of April 13, nearly 1.9 million hours have been completed, or 76% of the target of 2.5 million hours, a transition time in line with Solideo forecasts.

Of 2,619 beneficiaries, 1,298 are residents of Seine-Saint-Denis, followed by Paris with 347 people. Qualitatively, details the report, nearly a third of the beneficiaries are under 25 years old, a third have been jobseekers for more than a year and more than three quarters have a level less than or equal to the CAP/BEP.

“Excellent results”, write the deputies, who nevertheless warn “of the insufficient follow-up of people benefiting from integration hours after the end of their employment contract” and call for “a strengthening of apprenticeship hours in the last phase of the work”.

Solideo also set itself the objective of reserving 25% of the total amount of the contracts (1.67 billion euros) for SMEs, VSEs and structures of the social and solidarity economy (ESS). Target exceeded. In mid-April, 639 million euros in contracts and subcontracting services were awarded, i.e. 38% of the total amount, to 1,751 very small enterprises (TPE), small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) and 90 structures of the social and solidarity economy (ESS) spread over 90 departments. Half of these contracts were awarded to companies in Ile-de-France, a quarter of which (138 million euros) in Seine-Saint-Denis.

The rapporteurs nevertheless regret that the direct access of independent SMEs and VSEs to markets in the Ile-de-France does not meet expectations, with the construction majors and their subsidiaries remaining the main beneficiaries of incumbent markets. Stéphane Peu and Stéphane Mazars thus recommend “limiting subcontracting contracts in the last phase of the finishing work”.