Protests in Paris – Tourism Stays Stable

At the beginning of March 2006, the French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin introduced a bill which was supposed to lower the high unemployment rate among the French youth. It says that French corporates can give notice to new employees within their first two years of working without giving any reason. Unemployment rate among graduated students and especially lower educated youngsters is estimated to be at 23% and the law is supposed to improve the employment by companies. However, the opposite happened. Companies are even more precautious because of the late refusal of the law and the confusing situation, which does not allow to make a long-term outlook. The protests against de Villepin and the government lasted from around the 18th - 28th of March and culminated in severe battles with the police, although the aggression is said to be incited by only few violent groups. People kept on protesting against the law for about 2 weeks and finally reached the withdrawal of the government.
Consequences for France are difficult and the country is said to be stagnating politically until the next elections in early 2007. However, there is also a severe economic damage which influences every sector. In case of tourism, Paris was affected highly as most demonstrations took place there. Browsing several forums on the internet like e.g. the lonelyplanet.com  resulted in repeating posts of people visiting the French capital and wondering if it would be safe. Answers varied a lot and discussions went into severe quarrels from time to time because of a tense atmosphere within the country. Visitors going to France and people making posts on forums just did not understand the brouhaha of the French people and underestimated the significance for the affected persons. Maybe also because they live in a country where such treatment towards employees is already practiced more or less, such as the U.S. or Germany.
Finally, people still travelled to Paris and there is no single report of touristic involvement in one of the demonstrations, which shows that it is secure to visit Paris. There have been few warnings to keep tourists away from certain districts and only the United States warned their citizens to stay away from protesting crowds and public meetings. There was also no severe decrease in hotel bookings or the renting of apartments as the providers www.all-paris-apartments.com stated. Therefore, what remains after weeks of trouble and stagnancy is an uncertain future for France and a smack of typical French protesting attitude. This attitude has not and will not affect foreigners in a serious way as long as protests stay peaceful, which would be the best for both the French tourism and also their own communication with the gorvernment.