(ECNS) -- With the 2024 Paris Olympic Games approaching, the fervor for Chinese tourists to travel to France has surged. According to the bookings of plane tickets and hotels on Qunar, a large Chinese travel platform, from July 20 to August 20, Paris has become the second most popular destination in Europe during summer, second only to London.
Data show that during the period the bookings of plane tickets to Paris and hotels in Paris increased by 2.3 times and 1.1 times respectively over the same period last year.
More tourists also drive up the price of travel in France.
An employee with European travel agency Li Ying said that five-star hotels in the center of Paris see significant price increases, with an overall increase of nearly 300 percent.
A tourist Liu Dan said that the hotel she stayed at previously drove its room price up to 10,000 to 20,000 yuan (about $1374.76-$2749.52) per night, so she had to switch to another hotel that was less expensive and charged about 4,000 yuan (about $ 549.9) per night.
Many industry insiders said that as the service capacity of Paris hotels is limited and the price goes high, some consumers will deliberately avoid the "expensive and crowded" period of the Olympic Games, and instead choose other popular destinations in Europe first. This also makes France's neighboring countries further increase in popularity.
Data on Qunar shows that this summer European tours to Italy, Germany and Spain become more popular, and the average price of hotel bookings in these destinations is 50-100 percent lower than in France. From July 20 to August 31, Italy, Germany, Spain and Switzerland's hotel bookings grow by over 1 times year on year.