Tourism. Return of foreign tourists to Toulouse is confirmed
The year 2022 ended in style for tourism in the Pink City. The positive balance is due in particular to the return of foreign tourists to the metropolis of Toulouse.
The year 2022 ended well for tourism players in the Toulouse metropolitan area. In its report on attendance in December, the metropolitan attractiveness agency announces that the year ended “on a high notethanks to the return of a foreign clientele and good attendance at cultural venues”.
Advantage of Portuguese tourists in Toulouse
The trend of the return of foreign tourists recorded during the year continues in December 2022. More than 20,000 visitors visited the tourist office, including 58% came from abroad. In 2021, they were 42%. Also, in the month of December, the figures for the hotel industry in metropolitan France recorded an additional 15% of the share of foreign visitors.
The Spanish clientele was present during the bridges of December 6 and 8 as well as during school holidays, followed by visitors from the United Kingdom and Portugal, according to the attractiveness agency. The presence of many Spanish visitors is usual. That of Portuguese tourists is more recent. She is related to the opening of new airlines depending on Toulouse to Lisbon and Porto. Another link with Faro is planned for the spring.
“Given the figures designated at the end of 2022, Toulouse confirms its place as one of the most attractive European metropolises both nationally and internationally,” says Jean-Claude Dardelet, president of the metropolitan agency. “The year 2023 is starting off with great momentum. Leisure tourism is finally taking the place it deserves in metropolitan France. »
Major exhibitions seduce
Local tourists are not left out. The major exhibitions and the programming of cultural sites at the end of the year convinced tourists and locals. The attractiveness agency underlines “the success of the exhibition dedicated to the Franco-American artist Niki de Saint Phalle, which opened at the end of the year at the Abattoirs, Museum – Frac Occitanie Toulouse and which has already attracted 26,500 visitors in this last month of the year (including more than 13,000 entries during school holidays)”.