France, where stylish jet setters typically flock to destinations like the Riviera, is devoid of American tourists this summer. Paris’s palaces are closed, including the Bristol, where a third of the clientele is American, and the nearby boutiques on the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré are nearly empty. Italy hasn’t fared better, as a European ban keeps American travellers home.
Americans are important customers for European luxury brands, especially in the crucial summer months, given the majority of American tourists come between May and August. Two-thirds of luxury sales in Europe are driven by tourists, analysts estimate, starting with the Chinese and often followed by the Americans, at least when the dollar is strong, as it was in 2019. Prior to Covid-19, there had been “a resurgence of American spenders in Europe, largely reflecting the appreciation of the dollar versus the euro”, says Thomas Chauvet, luxury goods analyst at Citi, citing a price gap of 20 to 30 per cent on average at current exchange rates. France’s shopping districts will be hit especially hard. In 2019, 2.3 million Americans visited Paris, the biggest tourist group by nation, making up 18 per cent of foreign travellers. In 2010, the figure was 1.3 million, according to Paris’s Visitors Bureau.
