Iron lady hikes her prices • FRANCE 24 English

Iron lady hikes her prices • FRANCE 24 English

now excitement for the Olympic Games is rising here in France and as are prices Salange M with me here in the studio to talk to us about these uh price hikes at major tourist attractions and particularly Solange the Eiffel Tower because tickets to go to the very top of that are now more expensive as of today I think so what’s going on is the monument in financial trouble well the dam uh as we say in French with the iron Fran’s Iron Lady is doing just fine but keeping her in tip toop shape well it is expensive so the company that runs the Eiffel Tower decided as of June 17th to raise ticket prices by 20% from €29 to35 per person that’s if you want to take it all the way to the top with the elevator you can also use the stairs to the second floor but those ticket prices well there are also a bit more expensive than they were before they’re now € 14 now such price hikes are not likely to dissuade uh visitors uh they’re similar to one to other major uh uh tourist attractions across the globe and l f as we say in French remains one of the top 10 most visited monuments in the world it was a a gift for our son because he’s so excited about the Eiffel Tower he is so high it represents France it’s our first vacation uh abroad it’s great to take photos from up here I’m a Parisian but it’s nice to see tourists in par now the company that runs it says that they need the extra money for a number of reasons first they say they’re still in the red or still struggling to wipe out the hole that was created by the covid pandemic the City of Paris which owns 99% of this management company it says that between 2020 and 2021 uh some 113 million EUR that was planned on well it didn’t materialize because of a drop in tourism now on top of this there are also royalties that the company pays to the city uh even if that too has been lowered but above all the Eiffel Tower is in the midst of a major renovation it’s being repainted in a slightly more goldish color um but this uh multi-year repainting of the Eiffel Tower well it’s actually not its first it’s the 20th paint job that it’s gone through gusta Eiffel actually left instructions saying that every seven years his Masterpiece needed a new coat of paint to avoid rust and corrosion and earlier this year there was a lot of criticis ISM that the the necessary work had been pushed off for too long the company denies this saying that they’re doing something exceptional and necessary with this paint job they’re removing older layers of paint and stripping The 135-year-old Iron Lady to her Bare Bones progressively of course now some of that paint though had l in it and that has ballooned costs of this paint job so the higher prices well they will help finance that as well as the some 350 employees at that run the site and allow for 7 million visitors to visit it every year that said though Salange €35 remains a lot of money to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower so are there any cheaper alternatives there are uh many cheaper alternatives first the Eiffel Tower if it really is on your bucket list well walking around it is still free uh seeing it from across the sen or from the shond mass is also free if you’re looking for a panoramic view from above of paris’s skyline from above there’s the saite in it’s a hill in M Mal sitting on the steps and even going into the Basilica of the Sak is free there’s also a really wonderful view from the Alo Triumph it’s less expensive than the Eiffel Tower and often less crowded as well and it gives you a good sense of how hosman uh redesigned the city and made it as we know today now when it comes to seeking out other plan BS many of paris’s other top spots also have cheaper alternatives the louv for example uh has raised its ticket prices by nearly 30% this year and it is also crowded with nearly 9 million visitors last year so instead you can seek out uh any one of paris’s other museums and there are a lot of them there over 130 of them uh many of them are free for example Victor Hugo’s house the history of Paris Museum the boal’s permanent collection the same thing goes for chat while nothing beats vers uh you can also try out the chat vanen or even Fontan Blau for a bit of history and a stroll in the wood okay lots of options Salange what about outside of Paris Al together well the French government says that 80% of the nation’s tourism is in just 20% of the country and it’s actually monitoring all of this to see the effects of mass tourism on the environment on local communities on pocket books but here too if with a little bit of digging there are also uh lots of Alternatives in Normandy for example instead of being one in 10,000 per day they go to there Alternatives like with the Cs near Mar there are equally beautiful Creeks to the west of the city on the C BL if you want to go to the mountains rather than the M BL there’s also the rest of the Alps or the Pyrenees or even the massive Cal need needless to say when it comes to travel going off the beaten path is often cheaper and in my view a lot more interesting oh I quite agree with you s thanks very much indeed for well

The Eiffel tower has raised its prices. Starting today, going to the top costs €35 per person. We find out how debt, costly repairs, royalties, and salaries are behind the price hike. We also look into less crowded and cheaper options for your visit to Paris and France.
#eiffeltower #tourism #paris

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