Many Chinese tourists arriving in Paris in recent weeks have been surprised by the same thing: the quiet. August is the traditional holiday month in France, when most Parisians flee the capital for sunny beaches in the south or exotic destinations abroad.
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“The French have all left, some neighbourhoods have barely any people,” one user wrote on the Chinese social platform RedNote. Others posted photos of deserted boulevards near Parc Monceau and the Musée d’Orsay.
But that has not stopped Chinese travellers from flocking to Paris in ever greater numbers this summer, as local tourism authorities predicted a 15 per cent year-on-year increase for June, July and August.
Of the top 10 sources of visitors to the French capital, the jump in visits from China was surpassed only by Canada, which saw a 31 per cent surge compared with 2024, according to data published by Choose Paris Region, the area’s official international outreach agency, on Thursday.
About 100,000 Chinese nationals are expected to tour Paris and the surrounding Île-de-France region, where top attractions such as the Palace of Versailles and Disneyland Paris are located, according to the agency.
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The double-digit increase is all the more impressive given that Paris hosted the Olympic Games in the summer of 2024, which triggered a strong rebound in Chinese tourism following a plummet in visits during the pandemic.