Images of barricades on the Champs-Élysées went around the world. Two days later, the Louvre was unable to open its doors because protesters blocked the entrances. In Lyon, the tourist office on Place Bellecour was set on fire. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu imposed night-time curfews in Paris, Lyon, Nice and Marseille, and several European countries updated their travel advice, urging their citizens to stay away from areas where crowds gather.
The impact on the Paris hotel trade is already visible in the data. According to the consultancy MKG, the lead that bookings for the next six weeks held over 2025 has been all but wiped out. Analyst Didier Arino estimates that each day of unrest in the centre of the capital triggers cancellations equivalent to 1% of the month’s overnight stays, above all in the luxury segment. Laurent Abitbol, chairman of the Selectour travel agency network, sums up the mood in the industry: a fortnight of tension can be weathered, but several months would be catastrophic.
Italy has joined this wave with a character of its own. Students, trade unions, farmers, fishermen and hauliers are protesting against soaring prices, low wages and the cost of housing. There were clashes in Milan, Turin and Bologna, while in the south, blockades of roads, toll booths and ports in Calabria and Campania disrupted key transport corridors. In Rome, the most symbolic image came on Saturday 24 October, when a group of protesters entered the Colosseum without tickets, to the astonishment of visitors, until security forces dispersed them. So far, no data are available to measure the effect on bookings in the Italian capital.
Spain presents a different picture and, in terms of public order, a far more moderate one. There is no question here of unrest comparable to that in France. The mobilisation centres on housing, and its symbol is the protest camp that the Tenants’ Union has maintained in the Puerta del Sol since 26 September. Tourists continue to stroll through central Madrid alongside the banners, although they can no longer get close to the statue of the Bear and the Strawberry Tree.
Even so, shopkeepers and hoteliers in the area say they are suffering cancellations, emptier terraces and cleanliness problems, and they are calling on the authorities to find a solution. The Madrid regional government’s housing minister, Jorge Rodrigo, lamented what he described as the “dreadful” image the capital is presenting to visitors. Official figures put the toll at 30 arrests and 38 police officers injured across the country since the protests began.
The calendar offers little hope of an immediate calm. A general strike has been called in France for 5 November, another in Spain for 11 November, and in Italy the CGIL union has called a stoppage for 20 November. For tourism, the key will be how long the conflict lasts.
Experience offers some grounds for composure. Paris set one record after another in 2024 and 2025, despite the 2015 attacks and the yellow vest crisis. But it is also a reminder that travellers’ confidence is fragile, and that every new image of violence in the heart of a capital carries a cost that is paid in the weeks that follow.
