what are the popular destinations?

School holidays start Friday evening. But fewer French people will leave, according to a study

from the Particulier à Particulier site published this week. Reservations made between September 1 and December 15 show a drop of 8.6% compared to 2022. This is due in particular to the purchasing power of households, battered by inflation.

Almost all destinations are affected, details the study, but cities (-31.1%), overseas (-20.4%), the seaside (-18.4%) and the countryside (-12.1%) are particularly affected.

Mountain: the Alps resist Those who leave will mainly go to the mountains, which unsurprisingly remains the preferred destination for the French for these Christmas holidays (56% of reservations). More surprising in this difficult context for purchasing power, vacationers favor the Alps (70% of reservations in the mountains), yet generally expensive

(but whose large ski areas provide more snow).Thus, according to the study, the Alpine massif benefits from an increase in reservations of 11.4% compared to 2022, while all the others show a decrease: – 28.9% for the Pyrenees, -28% for the Vosges, -9.5% for Jura, and -2.1% for the Massif Central. And in the Alps, mass tourism is not scary, because several large resorts are showing double-digit growth: this is particularly the case for the Sybelles area (which notably includes La Toussuire): +73.8%; from Serre-Chevalier: +48.6%; or even Espace Killy (Tignes-Val-d’Isère

): +44.8%.

Sun: heading for Spain

The sea, on the contrary, is one of the big losers of these Christmas holidays, with only 36.4% of reservations (down 18.4% compared to 2022). According to the study, this is explained in particular by a distrust of the weather, while historic records for rain were reached this fall.

^{Those who prefer the sun to the snow therefore prefer to go abroad, which also benefits from a strong increase in reservations of 32.2%. Reluctance linked to Covid has been lifted. Note that the south of Europe, and in particular Spain (+22.9%), is particularly attractive, undoubtedly due to a more affordable cost of living and apparently sunnier weather.} Study based on 14,546 reservation requests made between 1