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Melissa Prou
Published on
Jul 1, 2024 at 6:24 PM
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At the opening of the tourist season last April, Antoine Rousselet, vice-president of Seine Normandy Agglomeration (Eure) a charge you tourism, indicated that it had observed a sharp increase in short-term accommodation on the sector.
How can we explain this phenomenon and how does the city support hosts? The elected official answers our questions.
At the start of the tourist season, you announced a 20% increase in accommodation offers in the SNA area. Can you confirm this figure?
We are at an increase of 22% in two years, between 2022 and 2024. We can even talk about + 33% in three years. It’s more or less the same rate over these three years, with an increase of 11% per year.
Vernon has made a lot of progress and remains the city with the largest offer in the territory with 688 beds. Les Andelys has 642 beds and it is in Giverny that it is the most concentratedwith 330 beds.
The only place where we are worried about overtourism is Giverny. For the rest of the sector we are far from the red zone.
We therefore take this increase with delight, it is synonymous with revitalization for the most remote villages. We must find the right balance so that the external contribution does not become too restrictive.
How can this increase be explained?
There are several explanations. On the one hand, the trend towards the consumption of a green tourismof “slow tourism”, with the Seine by bike, excursions and the wide cultural offering from Monet to Giverny or even Château-Gaillard.
There are also financial reasons, with quite a few people opening their homes or an outbuilding to improve their income. Another reason, a little more annoying, is linked to taxation. The tax rules differ for furnished or unfurnished rentals, and are more advantageous for furnished rentals.
There are people who take their property out of unfurnished rental and turn it into furnished tourist rental. Using platforms like Airbnb, Booking or Gîtes de France, it is relatively easy and it is more tax advantageous. But this phenomenon can be detrimental to the rental counterpart.
Some numbers
The SNA territory has 424 accommodations or 4,305 beds including 304 furnished tourist accommodation, 19 hotels, two campsites, 86 guest rooms and a tourist residence. It also has 12 accommodations awaiting classification.
Across the country, there has been a 33% increase in accommodation over three years (since 2021) and a 22% increase between 2022 and 2024.
The municipality with the largest number of offers is Vernon with 101 accommodations (688 beds). It shows the most significant increase. The number of accommodations per municipality is as follows: 50 in Giverny, 38 in Vexin-sur-Epte, 34 in Les Andelys, 20 in Pacy-sur-Eure, 12 in Saint Marcel and 15 in La-Chapelle-Longueville.
The taxation is grotesque because it disadvantages long-term rental, it creates a tax loophole on tourist accommodation. When the rules were made, things were different.
There is still some questioning in the Senate about a reduction in this tax advantage, but it is not huge.
At SNA, have you started to think about what this danger represents and what should be put in place?
It’s here competence of the municipalities to be careful. The danger is not with us but is already elsewhere. In Eure and in the SNA territory, the situation is not tense but in Paris we have started hunting down Airbnbs.
Tourism and its development raise questions, in particular how to properly manage the well-being of territories. For example, it is difficult to develop canoeing activities in the Eure because local residents do not necessarily want to see this tourist development.
We can understand their difficulties, so our role is to develop without it being to the detriment of the inhabitants. The worst example would be Venice (Italy), we destroyed a city that lost its soul to become a tourist factory.
The development of tourism also brings good things. For example, he brings people to the villages…
It’s all about proportion ! I will talk about an example that I know, and which is a good example: La Chapelle-Longueville.
There is indeed an increase in tourist accommodation (15 offers compared to two a few years ago, Editor’s note), but it was done in proportion to the number of existing housing units. It is the role of politics to regulate the market and we are right in the middle of it.
Accommodation is listed on the tourist office website, how else do you support accommodation providers at SNA?
The digital communication allows, we hope, to consolidate the network of accommodations.
We are also implementing a annual event to bring together local professionals, including accommodation providers. Without forgetting the individual meetings on site with the host representative.
In the future, we should take action to raise awareness among guests about sustainable development and give them advice on how to move their accommodation down a less polluting path.
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