Mixed July for Cape Town hoteliers and restaurateurs

L’avant-saison a été également très difficile pour de nombreux hôteliers. Luca BENSIALI

The resort's tourism industry is cautiously entering August.

“2024 is not a benchmark year”, laments Frédéric Puech, president of the Cap d'Agde hoteliers club. Halfway through the season, the results for July are far from positive for the hoteliers and restaurateurs of the Agde seaside resort. After the post-Covid boom, the numbers are down this year. "Among hotels, we are talking about a 10 to 30% drop in occupancy. And even if it is only 10%, we are happy about it", explains the hotelier, also director of the Palmyra.

“It has nothing to do with previous seasons”

According to him, the absence of vacationers can be explained by a disrupted start-of-season calendar.”“We know that the first half of July has never been crazy. On top of that, this year, we had the election weekend, the Euro and some pretty mixed weather. But the real surprise was the last two weeks of July. The drop in attendance was confirmed, nothing like in previous years. And that for all sectors."

The observation is the same for Jean-Louis Abadie, manager of Ami Louis, a restaurant on the port of Cap d'Agde. However, the restaurateur has no doubts about the presence of holidaymakers at the resort: “I don't think there are fewer people this year. But there is a drop in consumption, that's for sure. It is also said that there are more foreign tourists. They are perhaps less drowned out by the French this year.” According to Jean-Louis Abadie, this drop in attendance can rather be explained by a drop in the purchasing power of the French."For our part, we have not increased our prices this year, they are the same as in 2023. We are aware of the importance of the budget for families. And just the price of a Coke at the port, we can understand some reluctance. It's always a risk when restaurateurs increase the amounts."

"Don't expect a great month of August"

Given the figures for the start of the season, hoteliers and restaurateurs remain cautious for the month of August. Jean-Louis Abadie, also elected delegate for relations with tourism stakeholders , warns that'"we should not expect a great month of August".& nbsp;Frédéric Puech seems more positive and prefers to wait regarding the sixteen hotels of the Cap d’Agde hotel club: "In terms of reservations, that&rsquo ;is consistent with 2023. There are still a few holes, as usual. Now we just have to see if it fills up in the coming days."

“OTAs”, the persistent scourge of hoteliers

For hotel managers, the seasonal battle is also taking place on the internet, on online booking platforms. "Now, 70% of bookings are made by telephone, therefore by "Online Tourism Agencies" such as Booking which take commissions of up to 20%. It is necessary for us to work with them, because now it works like this. But our daily work is to clearly show customers that going directly through us is much more advantageous. We also offer special rates, daily or last-minute promotions. Today more than ever, it is always important to question ourselves”, explains Frédéric Puech.

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