Commentary Toulouse will see five million tourist overnight stays in 2024
The Pink City dreams of taking a step forward in its attractiveness! “There is a Toulouse brand and we must assume it“, estimates Jean-Claude Dardelet, the vice-president of Toulouse Métropole in charge of tourism and president of the agency of attractiveness of the community. The elected thus aims at the five million tourist nights over one year by 2024.
By way of comparison, the fourth city in France recorded “only” 4.3 million overnight stays in 2019, the last reference year for local tourism professionals, before the emergence of the health crisis. In 2020, this figure fell unsurprisingly to 1.2 million nights and hoteliers in Toulouse counted 3.4 million nights sold in 2021. The cap to be franchised is therefore important for the territory.
“To reach our target of five million tourist overnight stays, we are not relying on an imposed increase in tourist density, but rather on smoothing activity over 12 months in order to avoid the syndrome of over-tourism”, comments Jean- Claude Dardelet.
A hotel occupancy rate to be improved
First of all, on the political level, the territory has just signed a “Destination contract” with the Atout France agency and the regional tourism committee in Occitanie in order to implement a policy of common tourist attractiveness in favor of Toulouse. The goal? Bringing back foreign tourists from Spain, Germany, Belgium and even England. In addition, Toulouse Métropole has just revised its merchant accommodation master plan. Like a local urban plan (PLU), it is regulated and ensures the proper distribution of the hotel offer throughout the Toulouse area.
“We are missing a lot of youth hostels. It’s a real hole in the racket and we need them to attract this audience. We also need to welcome other five-star level hotels, there are “Toulouse is too little. Finally, we are going to develop the hotel offer around the MEETT, the new exhibition center in the north of the agglomeration”, says a manager of the Toulouse Métropole attractiveness agency.
Today, 70% of the commercial accommodation offer is provided by hotels and 30% is offered by rental companies on the AirBnB platform. “5,000 accommodations are registered and 3,000 are actually active on the latter“, specifies Jean-Claude Dardelet. For the moment, the entire supply of commercial accommodation has an average occupancy rate over the year of 70%, but this is revealing. The bulk of the “Activity is recorded from Monday to Thursday, before falling over the weekend. Over the weekend, Toulouse hoteliers announce an occupancy rate of 41% and the objective is to reach 60% of here 2024.
Sites to promote
On the event and cultural sides, Toulouse will be able to benefit from major events to achieve its objective, such as the Rugby World Cup in 2023, with the hosting of five matches for which elected officials hope to receive nations with a population with strong power to purchase (US, Japan, Australia, for example). “Over the whole of the competition, we expect at least 40,000 visitors, including many foreigners, in the fan zone where the matches will be broadcast.“, explains Francis Grass, the deputy responsible for Culture at the town hall of Toulouse. The City has also launched a call for projects to make the Garonne a tourist attraction by welcoming a passenger transport system on the river with a The service must be launched before the competition and the partnership agreement can last from one to five years.
In terms of infrastructure, the territory intends to develop the appeal of certain sites such as the Saint-Sernin Basilica, which welcomed 522,700 visitors in 2021 alone, or the Cité de l’Espace (264,000 visitors). Moreover, the latter has been the subject of several tens of millions of euros of investment in order to give its visitors a kind of immersion as if they were on the Moon, as well as a similar experience. around Mars. The territory can in particular rely on two other emblematic sites, namely Les Jacobins and the Aéroscopia museum dedicated to the history of aeronautics.
Finally, to develop the attractiveness of Toulouse, the area is investing heavily in its new exhibition centre, “which has visibility of its activity over five years“, according to Jean-Claude Dardelet after doubts about its interest in emerging from the health crisis. The “Bureau des Filmings”, a new activity of the Toulouse Métropole attractiveness agency will also be an important vector for the development of tourism by implementing puts the territory at the forefront on various projects.The fourth largest city in France thus hosted 589 days of filming in 2021, through 265 supported projects, including six feature films. Hollywood open air ?