You can set your watch by it. Every time an Olympic Games year rolls around, out come the stories about over-priced tickets and soaring hotel prices.
I was the main Olympics reporter for the Toronto Star for 15 years or so, and I’ve seen it happen time and time again, from Vancouver to Athens and Sydney to Salt Lake City. Now it’s Paris’s turn to take the brunt of the criticism.
The New York Times reports that tickets for the Opening Ceremonies, which will feature a flotilla of barges carrying athletes down the River Seine to the foot of the Eiffel Tower (wow, so like the French to really go for it), are going for as much as $3,000 USD, or roughly $4,000 CAD. Ooh. La. La.
Want to see something a little less riveting? Men’s platform diving final tickets prices start around $950 USD, or $1, 275 CAD.
The Times says many hotels and rental apartments have doubled or tripled their typical summer rates (think an average of $1,100 USD or nearly $1,500 CAD). Airfares also have skyrocketed. Even the cost of a ride on the Paris Metro has doubled.
The Paris Olympics site, however, says 10 million tickets will be available for the Olympic Games, which run July 23 to Aug. 10. One million tickets will be priced starting at $26 USD or $32 CAD and will be available across all Olympic sports where tickets are on sale. Almost half of the tickets available to the general public are priced at $54 50 USD or $73 CAD, the site states.
But those tickets are often harder to find than a rational voter at a Donald Trump rally.
And good luck finding an affordable place to rest your head. Reuters quotes a study from a French group called UFC-Que Choisir as saying that the average 3 to 4-star hotel is charging almost $950 USD or $1,275 CAD per night, with an average minimum of 3.4 nights.
Just for fun (this is what a travel guy likes me calls fun, by the way) I went online today at Expedia.com and found a room at the Hyatt Regency Paris Etoile on August 5 for $730 USD (about $980 CAD), and a room at the 3-star Hotel Odyssey (near the Louvre) for $446 USD, or about $600 CAD. Not affordable by a long shot for most folks, but not as high as some reports might suggest.
I also checked Expedia for air fares and found a departing flight from Toronto on Aug. 5 with Air Transat (returning Monday Aug. 12, the day after the Games finish) for $939 roundtrip. Not bad for the height of summer in Europe, and pretty darn good considering its during the Olympics.
THAT AND THIS: TRAVEL NEWS BITS
A convertible ride on the Golden Gate Bridge. Photo Courtesy San Francisco Travel Association.
Hong Kong’s tourism numbers are projected to return to pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2025, reports out of Asia suggest … Nice to see Porter Airlines now flying from Toronto Pearson to San Francisco International. Their first flight took place on Thursday, Jan. 25. Porter earlier this month began direct flights between Toronto and Los Angeles on its new Embraer jets, which feature no middle seats and free wine or beer … The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration this week froze increases in production of the single-aisle 737 MAX due to ongoing issues following the Jan. 5 incident in which an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 had a door panel fly off at 16,000 feet. “Boeing needs to get their act together,” said American Airlines CEO Robert Isom. “It is hard enough running an airline. We need quality product, and that’s what we demand.” You have to think that the folks at Airbus aren’t unhappy with the mess at Boeing … United Airlines this summer will serve nine Canadian cities with more than 150 daily average flights between the U.S. and Canada, including the resumption of flights between Halifax and Newark/New York, Vancouver and Washington, D.C, Winnipeg and Denver. They also will offer flights between Chicago and Winnipeg and Quebec City, and will fly larger planes between Edmonton and Denver and between Montreal and Newark/NewYork. More flights also will be added to Toronto, Calgary and Ottawa.
