Tourist season in Hérault, first assessment: July difficult, August promising

While tourists have not shunned Hérault at all, they have, on the other hand, consumed much less, if at all. Midi Libre – JEAN-MICHEL MART

Camille Galtier, owner of the Hôtel des Arts, in the city center of Montpellier. Midi Libre – GIACOMO ITALIANO

Philippe Robert, owner of Camping Méditerranée-Plage in Vias. Midi Libre – JEAN-MICHEL MART

Eddy Caby, waiter at the Café du Théâtre, Place de la Comédie, in Montpellier. Midi Libre – Florence Guilhem

While we shouldn't cry wolf just yet, tourism professionals have indeed recorded a drop in their activity. And everyone is counting on August to get through it. Overview of the situation with all the players in Hérault tourism.

In the memory of tourism professionals, longing for the arrival of August had never been the case for them. The 2024 season has just reshuffled the cards. Everyone is waiting for August with feverish impatience. And for good reason. Accustomed until now to a strong increase in activity from the start of the summer season, they found themselves in July waiting for tourists.

“Customers, we count them”

Schedules of sadly empty hotels, deserted restaurants, free campsites, a Copernican revolution in this department which is usually full of tourists in the summer season. "Whether in Montpellier, on the coast or in the hinterland, the situation was complicated in July. Even the start of the sales went under the radar. In fact, we count ” customers, summarizes Mathieu Lattes, vice-president in charge of trade at the Hérault Chamber of Commerce.

Insufficient results

On the side of the Union of Trades and Industries of the Hotel Industry (Umih) in Languedoc-Roussillon, the figures for July speak for themselves: – 30% for the restaurant industry and – 15% for the hotel industry. Even the locomotive of Hérault in terms of accommodation, namely outdoor accommodation, has a negative result, “between – 2 and – 3% approximately. We do not yet have the final figures. Afterwards, some have done less and others are positive“, qualifies Philippe Robert, president of the Hérault Federation of Outdoor Hotels.

The tourists are there…

As part of the economic survey of the Observatory and monitoring of the Hérault Tourism Development Agency (ADT 34), on the scale of the Montpellier metropolitan area, "57% of professionals in the metropolis report a decline in activity. In the hotel sector, nearly 7 out of 10 establishments report a decline in activity, as do 6 out of 10 restaurants. However, the number of overnight stays is stable, with admittedly a little less French clientele and a little more foreigners, but the tourists are there. If we ignore 2023, which was an exceptional year, and compare it to 2019, the last normal year before Covid and excluding post-Covid, the number of overnight stays is higher than 10%“, specifies its manager, Mireille Carniel-Fabre.

The fact remains that between the political and social instability in France, just before the Olympic Games, then these games followed by many French people behind their television screens, capricious weather and a purchasing power in decline, spending linked to tourism is down. They have also been reoriented.

… but consume less and differently

For the president of Umih, Jacques Mestre, "stays are getting shorter and shorter and, in the catering sector, those that are doing best are high-end and fast-food restaurants". For campsites, we are seeing a drop in the range of accommodation. "Traditional camping, i.e. bare land, is making a comeback", notes Philippe Robert.

Whether in campsites or hotels (chains and independents), it is the additional expenses of tourists that are being revised downwards. “Sales of breakfast and drinks in our hotel bars are down. People are paying attention to everything“, underlines Romain Cuisy, director of the Hôtel Ibis Styles***, a stone's throw from the Comédie, and president of the Club hôtelier du Grand Montpellier.
Also note the continued rise in rental bookings, particularly on Airbnb, with 472,000 nights booked in July and 535,000 planned for August, i.e. + 15% compared to 2023. So many nights nibbled away at the hotel industry in all its forms.
August is therefore awaited like the messiah. “Things are starting to move, even if the start is slow“, continues Romain Cuisy. Everyone is counting on last-minute bookings and lower prices in September to transform a gloomy season into a radiant one. And why not ? “While July has been random for years, August has become the heart of the season, with a nice extension in September and October. So, let's wait until the end of October to see what the summer season will really be like“, concludes Jean-François Pouget, director of ADT 34. To be continued…

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