After a washout for almost two years, most tourism destinations in France look forward to welcoming Indian tourists again and in big numbers.

There is a great deal of excitement in the air in Paris this November as the buzz of the moment is about a huge wedding affair being planned by an influential Indian billionaire for which dozens of rooms have been reserved at all the leading five-star hotels in Paris and a leading food service company has been contracted for preparing unique Indo-French desserts.

There could not have been a better way to announce to the French tourism and hospitality players that one of their biggest potential markets was up and running and back in business. The news has indeed come as a huge relief to the French industry, which like all its counterparts around the world, has had the worst 20 months of its existence, as tourism dropped to near zero due to the restrictions imposed by governments to counter the Covid-19 pandemic.

The possibility of having Indian tourists roaming the streets of Paris again and clicking endless selfies with the Eiffel Tower as the backdrop has indeed cheered up several tourism destinations and products that have increasingly come to see India as a market to be developed for its large potential.

Indeed, before the Covid-19 pandemic brought tourism grinding to a halt, India had been one of the fastest growing source markets for many destinations as well as tourism stakeholders, and not just in France. Certainly, China and the United States were and continue to be bigger markets than India, for now. However, over the next decade or two, India would definitely give even China a huge run for its money.

Signs of revival

Some French product managers looking at the Indian market say that they have had exciting exchanges with their Indian tour operator partners, notably at the recently concluded World Travel Mart that was held at the London Excel Centre earlier in November. Frederic Gouguidis, international sales manager, Compagnie des Alpes, says that he had some excellent news from his Indian customers at the meeting in London. “We have already some requests from the Indian market and we really hope to welcome individual travellers and groups during the high season Parc Asterix, Grevin Paris and even Chaplin’s World in Switzerland,” says Gouguidis.

He is not alone in being optimistic about the revival of the Indian market, within the next few weeks. Claude Micallef, sales director of Bateaux Mouches, leading cruise operator on the Seine River, is an old India hand and he too is sure that the revival of the Indian market is not too distant and is expecting a strong comeback by a key source market.

“Everyone is happy to be able to move out of their homes and enjoy our cruises and we are also very happy to welcome them back. Certainly, the numbers are not at all what they were in 2019. But, yes, we are getting there. Slowly, but surely,” Micallef tells India Outbound.

Not far from Bateaux Mouches, Montparnasse Tower is also eagerly awaiting travellers from India. After five months of complete closure, the Tower, with its observation deck on the 56th floor and the rooftop on 59th floor, reopened earlier this year in June and sales director, Jean Marc Champrobert, says the return of tourists, notably from Europe, has been encouraging so far. “We reopened the deck in June this year after five months of closure and immediately we saw that it was going to be a much better market and we closed the summer up about 20 pc from 2020, but the real restart of business happened in mid-September that was very good and then we had a very, very good October. So, we are very optimistic for the end of the year, even though we see that there has been a rise in Covid-19 cases in Europe,” Champrobert tells India Outbound.

Montparnasse Tower’s deck, operated by MagniCity, a company that manages panoramic observation decks in several countries, has high hopes from India as well, in 2022. “We expect more and more Indian travellers next year as we have been told by our trade partners in India that Indian travellers are ready to travel. Of course, they expect sanitary situation to stabilise and as more and more Indians are vaccinated, it will be easier for them to travel. But we don’t expect a real restart of business from India before the spring next year, but we hope that the summer will be good as we have heard from many tour operators in India,” says Champrobert.

New products, attractions

While travel was interrupted, most tourism companies have been busy with innovating and renovating, in order to give the visitors a better and more comfortable experience whenever travel resumed. For instance, Parc Asterix, a theme park near Paris which is managed by Compagnie des Alps that manages several products in France and other European nations, has seen the opening of three hotels in the theme park itself, which will allow travellers to spend their entire stay in the same ambience of the famous Gaul village that the Asterix comics were set in. “Now Parc Asterix is a resort with 3 hotels located on the spot with 450 family rooms. Two of these are three-star properties, while one, Les Quais de Lutece is a 4-star hotel. Parc Asterix and his six thematic worlds is the perfect short breaks destination,” says Gouguidis.

Meanwhile, a sister attraction of Parc Asterix, Musée Grevin in the heart of Paris, a famous wax museum has also undergone several improvements. “Grevin is now more immersive, experiential and dynamic than before with new unique scenery, more than 200 celebrities to meet and a spellbinding sound and light show,” says Gouguidis.

At Bateaux Mouches, too, novelties await travellers, especially from India. “We have big hopes for 2022, from Asian and American markets. Coming to the Indian market in particular, I hope it will be back very soon. I have heard from Atout France and from our partners in India that everyone is ready and let me say that we are also ready to welcome them back here. We are ready with all the products like dinner and simple cruises. We are also ready to customise special menus for special groups and to make the evenings as much enjoyable as we can,” says Micallef.

“We are not doing too bad right now, but if everything goes ok, next year, we should be booming big time and we hope to be back at the 2019 levels by the end of next year. Everyone is ready in India to travel and France and Paris is one of the main attractions for the Indian travellers. We have good signs that this is happening very soon,” Micallef adds.

At Montparnasse, too, new experiences await travellers, says Champrobert. “During the lockdown, we introduced new tools to improve customer experience. We have a new tool, called MagniCity app, which is available at all our sites, and which allows the visitors to have all relevant information about our sites and the landmarks that are visible from our decks. The first feedback that we have had from users is very positive and encouraging. Also, last summer we organised several concerts on top of our site as we wanted to attract Parisienne visitors after work and the feedback about the experience was very positive and we also have a new exhibition called colourama on top of the building, a new way to observe Paris,” he says.

Montparnasse Tower deck operator MagniCity runs different observation decks around the world. In Berlin, it runs the iconic TV Tower and it also has a deck in Rotterdam in the Netherlands as well as the 360° Chicago, on top of John Hancock Tower in Chicago.

Champrobert says that the traffic of travellers has been the most encouraging in the United States. “We are back to normal at Chicago in US where we have already achieved 2019 levels and it is a big boost to our group. For the other sites, we hope to reach up to 70 pc our 2019 business by end of 2022, like here in Paris,” he adds.

He says there are new services and products in all MagniCity sites. “We will have major news about both Berlin and Rotterdam. We will have a full renovation of Rotterdam to make it more exciting. In Berlin, we are adding a new feature, which will present the rich history of Berlin to the visitors. It will be a 2D, 3D and virtual animation recounting the story of the city. In Chicago, we will completely renovate the bar,” he says, adding that customers can find a lot more excitement when they begin travelling again.