Paris hotel bookings

PARIS: Paris hotels, usually crammed with New Year revellers, have seen New Year reservations plunge 30 per cent in the wake of the November 13 attacks, the head of the regional hotel union said on Thursday. “Reservations are down 30 to 40 per cent this year on previous years,” said Evelyne Maes, president of the Umih union for the Ile-de-France region covering the capital. Maes said foreign tourists normally flock to the ‘City of Light’ but the attacks blamed on Islamic extremists which killed 130 people six weeks ago ‘have made people fearful — people have perhaps hesitated when it comes to visiting Paris’. She added hoteliers had ‘also seen last-minute cancellations’ and that the fall-off in tourist numbers had hit all kinds of accommodation, including furnished variety and also the Airbnb home rental web platform.