Louvre Visitors Down 22% during Olympics

It’s my last day in Paris before I go home after 3 fantastic weeks. I’m hopping around the city a bit today and I must say everything pretty much feels back to normal. The biggest impact to the city is the closure of Place de la Concorde where they built 4 temporary sport arena’s. The city of Paris has a website which outlines the timeline for the removal of these temporary structures. Early November the last of the temporary structures should be gone, others should already be removed before that https://www.paris.fr/pages/sites-temporaires-des-jeux-a-paris-centre-dates-de-montage-et-perimetres-de-securite-26176

I can’t say I’m surprised about the visitor numbers to the Louvre. I’m sure other museums, like for instance Musée d’Orsay, will report similar numbers. The city certainly didn’t feel empty, but it was much much less busy compared to when I was here in May 2023 and April 2022.
It was a true joy to be in Paris during the Olympics. I’m also happy that none of the scaremongering warnings of how Paris would be full, public transport overloaded and sites like the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre closed, came true.

Before anyone jumps on a plane, don't forget:

The Paris 2024 Paralympic Games will be held from 28 August to 8
September with around 4400 athletes competing in 22 sports

Just like the more than 10000 athletes who participated in the Olympics, the Paralympic athletes will stay in the purposely built Olympic Village in Saint-Denis. Saint-Denis is a town directly north of Paris and it’s not an area where tourists to Paris would normally stay.
Hop on a train, plane, bus or car is actually what a lot of people did when it turned out that none of the scaremongering warnings of gridlocked public transport and skyhigh hotel prices came true. I’ve spoken to many during my 3-week stay in Paris and I actually have friends and family who came to Paris last minute. My cousin and his family for instance, who decided during the Games that they wanted to be part of the action and great atmosphere. They managed to get tickets to the women’s hockey semifinal and found a hotel nearby the hockey stadium. They had a wonderful stay in Paris and truly enjoyed it.

I enjoyed it so much that I’m seriously considering to go back for part of the Paralympics.

A large part of this was that only those with reservations were allowed near the Louvre. As a security measure, absolutely no one without a ticket in hand was allowed to approach the museum. Had the Louvre been as accessible as it normally is, those standing in the no ticket line would very likely have made up the 22%.

Dutch_traveler, some things never change. For the 1984 Summer Olympics the scaremongering instilled in everyone to remain off the freeways unless you were traveling to an event, made the Los Angeles freeways empty throughout the Olympics. So it worked! Never was there a better time to drive in LA. It was a wonderful and memorable experience to meander through some public accessible parts of the Olympic village at UCLA; as well as attend some swimming and diving events. Will be interesting to see how it all plays out in 2028; as now some public transportation exists but we are car centric in Southern CA and that's not going to change by 2028. Agree that the atmosphere surrounding the Olympics is unique, memorable and a lot of fun. A great travel destination.

So I feel like there will be a lot of travel chatter on this forum in the future, that will fit into the Beyond Europe category when the Olympics are playing in the US. It's a fun and unique experience for sure!

“ A large part of this was that only those with reservations were allowed near the Louvre. As a security measure, absolutely no one without a ticket in hand was allowed to approach the museum. Had the Louvre been as accessible as it normally is, those standing in the no ticket line would very likely have made up the 22%.”

This security measure was only in place in the few days leading up to the opening ceremony on July 26. As soon as the Opening Ceremony was done, so during the Olympics, everyone with or without a ticket for the museum was allowed to go near the Louvre. I know this because I actually went to the Louvre several times during the Olympics. I went there both during the day and in the evening because that’s where the balloon with the Olympic flame was stationed. In addition to that there were Olympic Rings right in front of the Louvre Pyramid that were a very popular photo spot.
The few days before the Olympics that the Louvre was only accessible for those with a ticket could not have caused the 22% drop in visitor numbers during the Olympics.

And like I said, I had that exact same experience at the Musée d’Orsay. And I even went there on August 4, the first Sunday of the month when entry is free. I’m not going to say it was empty, but it was much less busy than when I went there the year before on a regular Friday in May.