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Airbnb bookings show tourists not put off Paris

The Local France
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Airbnb bookings show tourists not put off Paris
Revellers on the Champs Elysées for New Year's Eve. Photo: AFP

Despite the recent terror attacks more people have booked up with Airbnb to spend New Year in Paris than any other European city.

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The home-sharing website revealed that 45, 000 people are booked to visit Paris over New Year, more than any other European city.

While New York tops the rankings with 47,000 booked through Airbnb, the fact Paris is the second most popular global destination suggests the city still holds its allure despite twice being hit by terrorists in 2015.

Airbnb says it has taken over one million bookings for over 160 countries over the New Year period.

Behind Paris came London with 35,000 bookings, Sydney with 25,000 and Barcelona with 24,000.

The figures may a sign Paris's tourism industry is recovering after the attacks on November 13th. Following the carnage at bars, restaurants and concert venues across the city, hotel and restaurant bookings plummeted and airlines also reported a drop in numbers.

Those who are booked to come to Paris will be pleased to read that the New Year’s Eve celebration on the Champs Elysées will go ahead despite talk of it being ditched.

However there won’t be the usual fireworks display and it certainly won't be as grand as normal.

Chip Conley Airbnb’s head of hospitality told travel website Travelmole: "It's encouraging to see Paris up there after what happened a month ago. It's good to see Paris rebounding."

Paris is Airbnb’s top destination and surveys show how many apartments in the city are being used for short term rentals to tourists. 

Homeowners on the Ile Saint-Louis in central Paris, which has some of the city's most expensive real estate, are being kept in style by Airbnb rentals, a recent survey showed.

Across France, 44 percent of the homes advertised on Airbnb are permanently available for rental, the survey found.

Apart from being noisy the tourist tenants are accused of driving up rental prices.

The tourism industry group behind the study accused California-based Airbnb of fuelling the emergence of a veritable property "industry".

Many homeowners rented their homes for more than the four months a year allowed under French law, the study claimed.

Airbnb, which was launched in 2008 and now has some 40 million users worldwide, has also raised the hackles of traditional hotel chains who see it as a rival that flouts tax laws.

The company recently agreed to pay a tourist tax to Paris from each of its bookings in the city.

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