Paris streets sit empty as Olympic events draw raucous crowds

PARIS — For athletes and audiences, these have been the Olympics when raucous crowds have roared once again following years of lockdown restrictions.

But outside the din of the stadiums, it’s impossible to ignore that Paris is relatively quiet.

The International Olympic Committee promises that hosting the Games “generates powerful economic benefits.” And Paris 2024 has vowed that tourism, hotel and catering sectors “will benefit first and foremost from the influx of visitors.”

This does not appear to have happened.

Business is significantly down for shops, restaurants and cafés, according to trade data and dozens of interviews by NBC News. Taxi drivers sit idle at their ranks, some blaming the Olympics for driving away fares. Major streets and attractions are remarkably calm — and even the “Mona Lisa” is less mobbed than usual.

“Last year, we were completely full inside and out,” said Bérangère Drogue, 38, who works at bistro L’Elephant Du Nil, in the trendy Marais neighborhood. “We were expecting it to be like this during the Olympics but…” she trailed off, gesturing to banks of empty chairs in the cobbled square. “It’s like night and day.”

Nearby, a line of taxis waited unhailed in the parching afternoon heat.

“I have never seen Paris like this,” said Jugurta Chabane, 28, his black suit and tie matching his dark vehicle. “It’s affected my business a lot, I would say by around 70%.”

Not everyone is unhappy, with many Olympic tourists able to experience Paris like never before.

Those hunting for a good café terrace table are in luck. Lines for the Eiffel Tower and other attractions are appealingly small. And Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece in the Louvre Museum has rarely attracted such a small gaggle of cellphone-waving art lovers.

“Most of the time, this entire area is full and the line of people stretches out into the other room,” said one gallery attendant, declining to give his name because the museum does not allow him to speak to the media. “But during the Olympics it has been much quieter.”

When NBC News went to see the iconic painting last week, there was a reasonable crowd inside the cordoned-off section in front of the portrait. But nothing compared to the masses that usually vie for position under her famous half-smile.

Kate Johnson, 39, is from Houston but used to live in Paris. She was amazed by how easy it was to traverse the marble hallways and staircases of the world’s most famous museum.

“It’s so empty and bizarre,” she said. “We were in the Louvre basically by ourselves today.” She “had quite a bit of anxiety leading up to the Games” because of fears about crowds, she said, “but instead it has been so easy to navigate.”

Atop the Arc de Triomphe, Erin Flaherty, 16, from Boston, was enjoying a bird’s-eye view of the city while visiting with her family.

“I can explore so many places I wouldn’t be able to without buying tickets and planning it,” she said.

It’s too early to say whether Paris has indeed seen a general decline in foreign and domestic tourism.

Local tourism officials are bullish, pointing to data saying visitors were up 20% year over year in the three days before the opening ceremony. This would make sense as fans with tickets flooded in.

Deputy mayor for tourism Frédéric Hocquard believes this will only improve.

“This weekend will certainly be one of the biggest, if not the biggest, tournament weekends of the year,” he said in an interview with NBC News. “Bookings are now being made this week, with people saying that there’s something happening in Paris and that they’d like to come.”

If tourism has suffered during these Games, the evidence suggests Paris would not be an outlier.

Most Olympic hosts see tourism decline, and — after spending billions — few cities break even, according to Andrew Zimbalist, an economics professor at Smith College in Massachusetts, and one of the leading global experts in Olympic finance.

“I don’t think there is a business case for the Olympics,” said Zimbalist, whose 24 books include “Circus Maximus: The Economic Gamble Behind Hosting the Olympics and the World Cup.” The major exception is Barcelona, he added, whose 1992 Games helped transform an underdeveloped city recently out of dictatorship into one of the top tourist destinations in the world.

“But few others achieve that,” he said.

Asked about this criticism, the IOC referred NBC News to the Paris 2024 organizers, who did not respond to a request for comment by email. (NBC News’ parent company, the Comcast-owned NBCUniversal, is the world’s largest Olympics broadcaster.)

Part of the problem seems to be that visitors arriving for the Games appear to be staying close to Olympic sites rather than venturing out to tourist attractions such as Montmartre, according to Corinne Menegaux, director of the Paris tourist office. They also aren’t spending as much money, according to the Confederation of French Traders, which said businesses in Paris had seen a 70% drop in turnover in the week before the Games.

“People who have come for the Games have only stayed for the Games,” said Sonde Claude, 50, who manages a community collective-run café in the city’s historic Saint-Paul district. “I don’t think many of them wanted to see Paris.”

Data from airlines is similarly concerning. Delta says it expects the Olympics to cost it $100 million, and Air France-KLM between $162 and $170 million. Travelers are displaying an “avoidance of Paris,” which is “lagging behind other major European cities,” Air France-KLM said.

Hotels have also struggled as many of them have tried to raise their prices. Room rates went up 70% to an average of 342 euros earlier this summer, Reuters reported, citing the Paris tourist office. However this meant that some 30% of rooms were vacant ahead of the Games, it said. Now that prices have fallen again to come into line with reduced demand, Hocquard, the deputy mayor, believes occupancy rates will be back up to the 90% norm this weekend.

Among the French themselves, the Games have divided the local population, with many people unhappy about the unprecedented levels of security taking over their capital.

A survey by top pollster IFOP last month found more than half the country was either indifferent, concerned or angry about the event.

Parisians would not be alone in this. It is the third consecutive Summer Games — after Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 — where polls have shown significant opposition among the local population.

The upshot is that many Parisians have simply skipped town, a mass exodus that happens every August, although never to the extent it has this year, according to NBC News’ interviews.

“Everyone has left,” said Stefan Mabire, 70, who wears an “I ♥ PARIS” T-shirt and runs a kiosk in the Marias hawking souvenir magnets and other trinkets. “I cannot remember Paris like this.”