VIDEOS – Since Monday, herders angry block access to the third most popular tourist site in France. A deadlock that hurts business on the site almost exclusively devoted to tourism.
At the heart of the summer, the Mont St. Michel made a wry face. The streets usually crowded the third most visited monument in France after the Eiffel Tower and the Palace of Versailles with 2.3 million tourists, are still deserted Wednesday by tourists. Like many other sites in France, including the Lascaux cave in the Dordogne, rock, world heritage of UNESCO, is blocked by angry farmers since Monday. In tourist season, hoteliers, restaurateurs and the famous Abbey are held hostage and could well suffer economically from the revolt of meat producers.
Barrage breeders on one of the two roads leading to Mont-Saint-Michel <. span class="fig-media-credits"> Photo credit: CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP
” While Monday’s attendance figures exceeded the Abbey of last year, there is a significant drop in the number of visitors, “says the Le Figaro Xavier Bailly, director of one of the few profitable monuments national monuments. Responsible for “the most important is that the monument is open in good conditions”. Because the manure dams, tires, tractors and trucks, upstream parking lots, block access to tourists but also to assets “Breeders prevent those working on the rock to move and our teams are vaillemment brave the roadblocks, “lamented Xavier Bailly. “They only let relief, no employees and cooks,” adds Jerome, deputy head of the restaurant Pré Salé, located in the district of The Barracks, near car parks. “Some employees arrived at 20h 30 instead of 17 h 30 Monday night, after traveling three kilometers walk from the dams,” protested the official. The restaurant, which usually hosts 450 seats, is empty: “It has zero client” despairs Jerome
“More than 50% of revenue in less”
. intramural, same story. “I closed my restaurant for the day,” lamented Tuesday Nadine Payen, manager of the restaurant Le Chapeau Rouge. At the tourist office, only the phones break the silence. “We get calls constantly from tourists who want to know the status of the situation.” But there, the expected 10,000 daily visitors usually in summer are absent. “For the month of July is the desert,” says Loïc Nicolle hotel manager Duguesclin, located in the main street of Mont-Saint-Michel.
Two tourists with luggage towards Mont-Saint-Michel Copyright: CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP
Gilles Goyer, CEO Sodetour Group, owner of nine out of the rock is also concerned: “Most tourists spend only night on the Mont-Saint-Michel,” says company president. Appraisal: “Since Monday we have 50% of revenue in less.” “Only the Japanese and Taiwanese, the more adventurous, hang their rolling suitcase four kilometers from Beauvoir, the nearest village,” thus surprised the entrepreneur. “They are accustomed to natural disasters,” he quips.
A potential daily loss estimated at 220.000 euros
Daniel Dufeu, vice president of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Central and South Channel, the calculation is fast. “It falls very badly in tourism,” worries elected in charge of trade and tourism. The figures are worrying: “The daily loss can potentially reach 220,000 euros,” said Daniel Dufeu. A this season, the daily gain reached 40,000 euros for parking, ticketing Abbey met 80,000 euros and the “small and medium facilities” listed by the Chamber of Commerce realize a turnover of 100,000 euros daily. A number that does not even include sales of the two largest companies operating on the rock: the Sodetour Gilles Goyer and the group of “Mère Poulard”, famous for its omelettes, but also owners of hotel establishments.
For some note is saltier again: “There is nobody; I charge a 80% loss in revenue a day, “recognizes Patrick Gaul, owner of five cases at Mont-Saint-Michel. For him, however, solidarity with farmers remains essential: “The farmers are desperate; of course we are in solidarity. ” On Wednesday, the Minister of Agriculture, Stéphane Le Foll, presented an emergency aid plan of 24 measures including a restructuring of all debt relief and different social and tax charges. Taking the “Bastille of the seas”, nickname rigged the famous rock, could well allow farmers a small revolution.
No comments:
Post a Comment