The Paris Olympics Legacy? Joy.
The Paris Olympics Legacy? Joy.
For France, this is as important as all other positive outcomes.
It’s fitting that the end of the Olympic Games (the first part, anyway— the Paralympics begins August 28!) coincides with the end of summer, creeping ever closer, and all the blues that go with it. But France, and Parisians especially, have reason to remain joyous and optimistic a bit longer— the Games were a smashing success and fostered an atmosphere of euphoria palpable even to those who were watching from afar. It was, in a word, refreshing! Both because the state of feeling good for any sustained amount of time is increasingly elusive to us (here and everywhere) and because the despair we felt in the two months prior to the Games essentially evaporated. It was an intermission from Macron’s political pummeling on the nation that only a highly visible, high stakes mega event like the Olympics could have made possible.
I’m sitting with some serious regret for not having stayed after the opening ceremony (though I already feel enormously lucky to have experienced that with my friend Amy Verner) but that feeling is outpowered by pride that France successfully swapped pessimism for wonder.
Aside from the general mood, which I hope will find its way into French collective memory and be summoned to mind when the urge to self-diminish invariably returns, tourism appears to have fared better during the Olympics than earlier projections. According to the Paris Convention and Visitors Bureau, Paris saw 11.2 million visitors between 23 July and 11 August, with or without a ticket for the Games, 85% of whom were French—important to re-establish positive feelings about Paris within France. (15% were foreign, led by Americans.) And given that NBCUniversal, the Olympics exclusive media partner, averaged 30.6 Million Olympics viewers per day, an 82% jump from the Tokyo Olympics, perhaps some of those will become the travelers we welcome in the coming year.
Not every facet of the tourism industry benefited, however. Major monuments and museums such as the Louvre or the Musée d’Orsay reported significant drops in visitors (22-30%), as did restaurants located at a remove from Olympics venues. This tracks with reports on tourism behavior in other Olympics host cities. The question of the medium-term impact tourism is harder to answer, particularly with a city like Paris, already one of the world’s most visited destinations—the objective here wasn’t to radically increase overall visitorship (compared to, say, Barcelona in 1992 which put the city on the tourist map and changed the direction of its future. For more on this broader topic, listen to my podcast episode with author Paige McClanahan on her book The New Tourist).
Ultimately, the most significant outcome may be on the city’s reputation. In the week leading up to the Games, I was interviewed by several foreign journalists about some of the enduring stereotypes about Parisians—namely, their lack of warmth, patience and customer service. Are service providers prepared to put a smile on and be nice? They all wondered. I assured them that the Parisian welcome has much improved in recent years, particularly since the city emptied of its loyal travelers during the first two years of the pandemic. What I couldn’t tell them with any great certainty, however, was that things would go smoothly. Would the trains run without issue? Would the cops be their usual grizzly and intimidating selves? Would Olympics and tourism volunteers in the streets and in metro stations be helpful? Did French intelligence have the security risks handled? Would this experience help or hinder these long-held beliefs about Parisians as chronically unpleasant?
In nearly 20 years living in Paris, I have never seen such an outpouring of joyful praise for the city— on social media, on the ground, on television, and among the foreign media’s most seasoned France bashers. Paris 2024 nailed the venues, the vibe, the cheer, the welcome, the enthusiasm, and a genuine embrace of athletics and human limits that we so rarely experience collectively.
The sense of awe, as Alexander Hurst so aptly explained in his op-ed for The Guardian today, “is real—it’s observable in the brain during an fMRI scan, and brings psychological benefits. Perhaps when we experience awe together, it brings social benefits too. Perhaps it changes the story we tell about ourselves and about each other.” May that be the narrative we remember, preserve, and share in the months and years to come.
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All this nonsense about Parisians being rude. The times have changed! If you dress like an adult, don't act like a fool and exude kindness I have found Paris to be a very friendly place. J'adore Paris!
Beautifully said Lindsey. I have been covering sports in France and Paris since 1991 and the only other moment that was comparable was the 1998 World Cup but that did not have the same day in, day out sense of wonder and, as you wrote, joy. These Olympics were that rare thing for any massive, temporary event in a city full of bustle and doubt: a smashing success. I hope the young people who took part in making it work so well carry that sense of possibility forward.
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