In lead-up to Rugby World Cup, Paris Olympics, UMIH President 'confident' French tourism will thrive

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00:00 Well, for more we can speak now to Véronique Sigel, who is the president of UMIH Hôtellerie

00:06 Française, which represents French hotels.

00:09 Thank you so much for taking the time to speak to us today.

00:12 How much of an impact is this wave of unrest having on France's hotel industry?

00:17 Well, it's quite hard to quantify it really.

00:22 Actually, we have had a quite difficult weekend with lots of cancellations, lots of guests

00:28 calling to re-insure and ask how the situation is in France.

00:34 But actually, what I want to say tonight is this situation was really complicated on Friday,

00:41 Saturday, but since yesterday it has improved a lot.

00:46 And the city centers are very calm again.

00:51 The situation has improved a lot and they are again very welcoming and there is no security

01:00 problems now in the city centers of France and everything is under control right now.

01:05 So we are quite confident in the future weeks and months.

01:09 But it's going to take a while, isn't it, for the image of France to recover in the

01:15 minds at least of tourists who don't live here and all they see is what they see on

01:20 the news or what they read in the newspaper?

01:22 Well, I think that sort of things can happen in any country, in any democratic country.

01:29 That's actually the situation was the same in the United States for some years and some

01:36 other countries who has encountered exactly the same problems.

01:41 So riots are one of the democratic expression and this is now what we need to work with

01:54 in the future.

01:55 But this has only been two days and now as it's very positive again, I think that it

02:06 shouldn't have such a bad image in the future.

02:10 But we will work on it and we will be in our properties and all the tourist attractions

02:17 and touristic places even more welcoming to other guests and make sure that everyone has

02:26 a safe and enjoyable stay in France.

02:30 I mean, obviously, hotel owners have been through a lot like a lot of business owners

02:35 in the last couple of years with the pandemic and presumably some of them are still trying

02:40 to do some catch up for those lost years.

02:43 Well, exactly.

02:45 During the COVID-19 crisis, government has issued some, well, banks have issued some

02:54 loans which we are granted by the government.

02:57 But now we have to reimburse those loans.

03:02 So we really need to have normal business and a stable business to be able to pay those

03:12 loans back.

03:13 So it's important for us to have a quiet situation and a normal business.

03:18 But I'm really very confident and I think that the problems of the weekend is now over

03:26 and we will be working on a new and very good season for this summer.

03:34 Indeed, and some big events coming up, the Rugby World Cup and of course, countdown to

03:38 the Olympics in a year from now.

03:40 So lots to look forward to.

03:41 Well, thank you so much.

03:42 I'm afraid we have to leave it there.

03:43 Véronique Sigal, President of the UMIH Hôtellerie Française Union.

03:47 Thank you so much for speaking to us.

03:49 Thank you.

03:49 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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