Last-minute bookings help French tourism weather uncertain summer
Last-minute bookings, along with a shift toward the mountains and cooler regions, were among the key trends in French tourism during the summer of 2026. Overall, the sector held up well despite geopolitical uncertainty and extreme weather events, AFP reports.
The 2026 summer season is shaping up to be better than expected in the spring, when tensions in the Middle East had a significant impact on bookings, CE Report quotes AGERPRES.
Tourism Minister Serge Papin recently described 2026 as “a very good year”, following an already strong summer season in 2025. “We will do at least as well, if not better,” Serge Papin said ahead of the release of official figures, which are expected in mid-September.
Although tourism professionals do not share the minister’s optimism, they nevertheless describe the sector as having shown strong resilience.
“The summer has demonstrated remarkable resilience, particularly given concerns over oil supplies, political instability and rising prices,” Dominique Marcel, president of Alliance France Tourisme, a think tank representing major companies in the tourism sector, told AFP.
“The 2026 season is expected to end with around 5% fewer holiday departures between May 1 and October 31 compared with last year. Is that catastrophic? No. If we had been offered such a scenario in April, we would have accepted it immediately,” said Patric Caradec, president of the French Tour Operators Association (SETO).
“Foreign visitors and French tourists who had planned to travel abroad but stayed in France are saving the season,” summed up Didier Arino, director of consultancy firm Protourisme.
According to booking platform Airbnb, French tourists largely chose to stay in France, with 70% of bookings made within the country, compared with 65% in 2025.
The trend of waiting longer before making a booking, in order to see how the weather and international situation develop, also encouraged last-minute reservations.
Analysts have observed an increase in foreign visitors, particularly Americans, mainly on the French Riviera and in Paris. This came despite heatwaves, which did not discourage travel to southern France, except in certain areas affected by wildfires, such as the Gironde region.
At the same time, cooler destinations were clearly popular. According to the National Federation of Tourist Residences in France (FNRT), mountain resorts were “the big winners of the summer”, with an overall occupancy rate 2.3 percentage points higher than the previous year.
Other regions also benefited from relatively cooler temperatures, with a significant increase in occupancy rates along the English Channel coast, according to Alliance France Tourisme.
As for international visitors, France remained the world’s leading tourist destination in 2025, with 102 million international tourists, although the gap with Spain narrowed. Spain recorded 97 million international tourists.
Photo: Wikipedia
