Christmas rush: the center of Toulouse taken by storm
The shops in downtown Toulouse broke attendance records last Saturday as they should still be today.
“Did you have a crowd?” More or less than last year? When he sends the message to his counterparts who are presidents of associations of traders in the various districts of Toulouse, on their discussion thread, at 19:34, last Saturday, Philippe Léon, who chairs the Federation of traders, is quick to see the answers arrive. It’s “more” in Saint-Georges, “more” also on rue des Tourneurs. It’s “a very beautiful day” at Croix-Baragnon. And, at the Stock Exchange, like avenue of the USSR, “it is catching up with the delay of the week”.
Conclusion of Philippe Léon, who became first vice-president of the CCI: “an exceptional Saturday, like we haven’t had for a long time”. After the difficult times of the Covid, here is good news from downtown Toulouse which should transform the test this Saturday, the last before Christmas.
The numbers of the rush
Several figures confirm the rush at the end of 2021. In the metro first of all: Tisséo transported 31,000 more people on Saturday 11 December than on Saturday 4 (291,000 validations against 260,000). And yet, network traffic has still not returned to its pre-Covid level. Around 15% of bus, tram and metro users are still missing. “But the trend is better than elsewhere”, does not fail to remind Jean-Michel Lattes, president of Tisséo Collectivités, which expects a return to normal at the beginning of the year.
The parking lots in the city center? Indigo, the manager, also notes an increase in attendance “by 10 to 15%” for the first two Saturdays in December compared to 2019, before the Covid. And right in the city center, Place du Capitole, the entries to the Christmas market are also showing good growth: 38,000 last Saturday against an average of 30,000 the previous Saturdays. All around the Capitol, the streets were crowded with people. For these holidays, the city center is back.
Traditionally, “the closer we go to Christmas, the more it grows,” recalls Philippe Léon, who also mentions the mild weather to explain the current success.
New president of the National Group of Independents of the Hotel and Catering Industry, a trade union for the profession, Olivier Bouscatel confirms “that we are not far from breaking records on Saturdays. “But he sees it as a compensation effect of” not great “weeks.
If the Saturday of the traders ended well, the beginning of the afternoon had worried them. Two hundred to four hundred anti-vaccine demonstrators once again occupied the boulevards, blocking access to buses and cars. But traders consider, for them, the ban on demonstrating in the hyper-center is a plus. A ban renewed once again today.
Shops open on Sunday
As has been the case since the end of November, businesses that wish to do so have the possibility of opening this Sunday, November 19. What should be the case for the most part, Christmas obliges. So far, according to Toulouse traders, Sundays have been “very average”. To support commerce in the city, the municipality is granting three hours of free parking in underground car parks in the city center this Sunday. Beyond these three hours, users will pay the current rate. The calculation is carried out automatically in the automatic tills of the Indigo and Q-Park car parks in Toulouse or with the parking card. The measure was passed by the opposition which considers it to favor the car. The metro and public transport remain the most convenient means of accessing the hyper-center.