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Paris travel bookings down after attacks

Data for the Christmas period suggests that bookings from key source markets were down 2% year-on-year before the attacks on November 13, but were 13% down on November 21.

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Nevertheless, Fankhauser said that he was hopeful that business would rebound fairly quickly.

The three biggest US airlines have said they are continuing to operate normal schedules between the USA and Paris. The group did not have numbers on travel cancellations.

Jennifer Michels, spokeswoman for the American Society of Travel Agents, said a poll of members found customers were not delaying or cancelling travel to and from Europe.

The Chambre du Commerce et de L’Industrie de Paris-Ile-de-France (CCI) has said that revenue at hotels in the Paris region slumped 50% in the week following the attacks and footfall dropped 30 to 50% at large stores.

Macron said it was too early to estimate the financial impact the attacks would have on the tourism sector, as much hinged on the pace of the recovery.

Low-cost European carrier easyJet (EZJ.L) said on Tuesday it had seen a “cooling off” in demand for travel to France.

Airline and travel stocks fell sharply on Tuesday. Air France was down 3.9 percent and easyjet down 3.2 percent.

Cancellations were highest last weekend, according to travel data specialists ForwardKeys, with the second-most affected travel period being immediately prior to the start of United Nations climate talks in Paris on Monday.

In recent days, the level of cancellations had stabilised at about the same level as past year as airlines stopped offering free rebooking, it added.

Olivier Jager, chief executive of ForwardKeys, said: “The clear picture to emerge from our data is that there were dramatic last-minute cancellations of immediate travel plans, predominantly among business travellers, following the attacks.

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159% down means that in addition to no bookings being made, there were cancellations equal to 59% of the number of bookings made on the equivalent day previous year”.

Paris tourism recovering after attacks- minister