“I still want to go to Paris, but after this incident I won’t go within a year,’ says Vickie Zheng, a 27-year-old realtor in Shanghai.

“My impression of Paris is that it’s a romantic city, but after this I think the security situation has been neglected and there are risks. If I was travelling this would influence me,” added Li Maoqing, 29, a Shanghai salesman.

After the terrorist attacks in Paris there have been many cancellations from the important Chinese market and Asia.

From the USA. Agents say, that 30 per cent have changed direction.

Also in the Nordic countries, tourists wait. SAS and Air France have given travelers the opportunity to rebook for no charge.

And Momondo says: ”Compared to the weeks before the Paris attacks, we see a clear decline in searches to Paris on both our Danish, Swedish, Finnish and Norwegian site.

Across our Nordic sites we see that, as an example, Monday the 16th of November had only 57 % as many searches to Paris compared to the Monday before the attacks,” says Lasse Skole Hansen, PR Manager, Momondo to TTO Scandinavia.

“It is difficult to say how long it lasts, because this is an extraordinary situation. After the Charlie Hebdo attack traffic search to Paris normalized after one month.”

Jesper Ewald, CEO, FDM Travel, Denmark:

”We have had five – 10 cancellations. However, this is nothing compared to the number of trips we have to Paris. 10 years ago when Madrid bombings jumped it had an influence. Now, people are used to it. They know there is a risk of living and the risk comes with when traveling.
There is also a “despite” reaction. People will decide for themselves when and where they travel. The situation returns to normal. We have the same turnover now as last year.”

Few cancellations

“German tour operators announced that customers could cancel or re-book forthcoming trips. But most German tourists are apparently keeping to their travel plans for the French capital. Tour operators said there had been very few cancellations so far and the vast majority of customers were going ahead with their trips.

It is not yet clear whether the attacks will impact on German travel demand in the coming weeks and months. Paris is a major city trip destination for German tourists, with rapid and easy connections by air, rail and road, The French capital is a popular destination over the Christmas/New Year period although most trips are made in the spring and summer months,” says fvw Travel Market Germany.

It is very difficult to get accurate information. Neither Air France nor the French tourist agency Atout France has reported cancellations.

Several hotels in Paris TTO Scandinavia has been in contact with did not want to tell how many cancellations they have received.

But hotel Le Bristol close to the Elysee in Paris says a third of bookings for the rest of the year have been cancelled.

A study by the US magazine Travel Weekly shows that the terrorist attack in Paris will have a major impact not only on travel to Paris:

“Nearly 30% of respondents to a Travel Weekly online survey said their leisure clients have canceled or postponed planned trips to Paris as a result of the terror attacks.

Paris isn’t the only destination that has been affected. Thirty-four percent of respondents said clients have canceled or postponed a trip to a destination other than Paris, and half said clients who are in the planning stages of a trip having expressed concern about travel to destinations other than Paris.”

“The attacks will have a huge negative impact on tourism in whole of Europe and the situation may not get better soon. The Chinese outbound tourists who want to travel through Europe may change their destination. Popular choices include Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. The increase in these areas will be obvious,” said tourism expert Yang Yanfeng, China.

His prediction echoes many industry insiders.

Caissa, one of the biggest travel agencies in China, has cancelled all tours to France.

But others look more optimistic about the future. Some travel companies though hold an optimistic point. They indicate that although Paris was badly affected by the attack, the impact on the whole of Europe will be limited.

“In the long run, people’s demand to travel will still be there,” said Xu Xiaolei, chief brand officer of AoYou.com. to Euronews.

More than 2 million Chinese were expected to visit France, the world’s leading tourist destination, this year, up from 1.7 million last year.

Support

Michel Tschann, president of Hotels ‘Union of the Côte d’azur, represents 350 hotels and restaurants, in and around Nice:

“Obviously the recent attacks that took place in Paris were sadly resented, especially since, amongst the victims are tourists and hotel staff.

The extraordinary support that was shown all over the world, the many support calls and messages were extremely comforting and we are very grateful for them.

There were immediate consequences:

+ some cancellations, but not massive ones

+ probably “non reservations”, ie potential tourist that might decide to avoid France

+ our safety and security concerns for both our clients and staff are even more acute and we keep a close link with French security forces that we trust, and wish to thank again for their care and courage.

However, it is important to remember:

+ “closing of borders” does not mean that our clients cannot come to France, nor that Schengen visas are not valid.

+ no security alerts on the Cote d’azur, no cancelled flights, and in Cannes the MAPIC tradeshow went on as planned

+ mostly “moral support” is fine, but our friends all over the world that really want to support France in these difficulties, can do so by buying French products, flying Air France, and of course come to France: not doing so will mean victory for the terrorists.”

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