At the beginning of August, it’s time to take stock for the month of July and tourism professionals are smiling! The tourists were there, and despite a still unstable health situation, the attractiveness of Marseille is confirmed again this year.
On the side of Marseille Provence airport:
Total traffic: 285,560 passengers, i.e. + 141% compared to 2020 but -45.2% compared to 2019 – Domestic traffic: 126,922 passengers + 70.9% compared to 2020 and -33.4% compared to 2019
– International traffic: 110,788 passengers + 258.5% vs 2020 and -52.0% vs 2019
Air traffic continued to recover during the first half of July. It now stands at around 20,000 passengers per day.
Domestic traffic is “only” down by -30% compared to 2019 (Paris Orly and CDG: – 50%, Regions: -28%, Corsica: -4%).
International traffic is significantly higher than last year but still down by -52% compared to 2019. Travel from / to many markets remains impossible or extremely limited: Algeria, Canada …
European traffic (121,092 passengers, -48.3%) represents the bulk of international traffic.
On the hotel side:
Activity in July has indeed returned almost to the level of summer 2019, which had been a very good vintage.
Hotel performance is high, with daily occupancy rates ranging between 66% and 87%, or +8.7 points compared to 2020 and more than -8 points from the occupancy rate for 2019. The average price of rooms is higher due to the less presence of groups, associated with a desire to catch up on the part of hoteliers, who limit their pricing efforts, and less price sensitivity on the part of customers. We note an increase of nearly 15% in the average price vs 2020.
The mid-range is the one for which the catching up is strongest, but it is also the one that suffered the most in 2020.
Thus, the change in RevPAR is mostly positive over the period between 2019 and 2021.
Reservations are last minute, a phenomenon already observed before the pandemic, but which is all the more topical this summer. The forecasts for August are therefore difficult to make, even if some hotels are announcing occupancy rates of around 80%.
The hotels around the Old Port and by the sea are, unsurprisingly, the most frequented.
Cruises
The month of July 2021 was marked by the resumption of cruises to Marseille, the 1st Port of France, after 17 months of hiatus. Costa Cruises and MSC Cruises, historic shipowners in Marseille, began the season on Sunday July 4 with a weekly program from MSC Seaside and Costa Smeralda.
MSC Seaside inaugural stopover
The Key & Plaque Ceremony organized aboard MSC Seaside on Sunday July 4 was the opportunity to discover one of the latest generation ships from MSC Cruises which will call in Marseille every Sunday until mid-November.
The start of this summer period will also mark the return of stopovers on D4 with the arrival of Club Med 2 on Thursday, July 15.
A secure gradual recovery thanks to additional cruise-specific measures:
Compulsory test before boarding and during the cruise, reduction of passenger capacity to 70% to ensure distance on board, compliance with barrier gestures and reinforced disinfection