Politics

Paris: goodbye to the last tourist office in the city

Au revoir, Paris.

Now it’s official. Paris will no longer have a tourism office. The news arrived on Sunday and immediately gave rise to quite a bit of controversy. “Visitor behavior has changed, particularly in favor of digital technology,” he said Corinne Menegauxgeneral director of the aforementioned Office. In short, goodbye to brochures and paper guides, now annoying trappings of the past. The new generations are moving to social media and demanding quick answers: “tourists want immediate information, now, wherever they are. The previous model is no longer effective”, he ruled Menegaux to the daily newspaper Le Parisien. However, many in France turn up their noses. First of all because the closure comes in a period in which the City of Lights confirms itself as the most visited city in the world: 50 million people a year, of which 37 in the urban area alone. Numbers constantly increasing in 2024, also thanks to the attractive force of the Olympic Games and the recent Christmas period. <>, he declared Stephane Villain, president of the National Federation of tourism-related bodies. <>.

In place of the physical office, the Parisian administration has planned the implementation of other solutions, including an instant messaging service on Whatsapp to receive personalized advice. Beyond the doubts, the initiative does not aim to suppress reception and information activities but aims to reorganize them. With a promise: the reopening by 2026 of at least 50 kiosks which will have to become real centers for information and assistance. The closure represents the end of a journey that began years ago. Created in 1971 thanks to a synergy between the Chamber of Commerce and the French capital, the Tourist Office was renamed as “Paris je t’aime”, becoming a real institution and point of reference. It has always had the Hotel de Ville as its headquarters; the Olympics were the excuse to transfer him to the fifteenth arrondissement . It now definitively belongs to the past. The news gives rise to several reflections. Similar choices, in fact, could give rise to future inequalities, where the older groups of the population and those who do not have digital skills will be especially affected. Furthermore, the Parisian administration itself seems to rely excessively on social networks, especially TikTok.

However, a negative change in the fate of Chinese social media could come from the United States. American concerns concern the myriad of information in Beijing’s hands. Data that the Dragon could use to further its propaganda and as a tool to increase disinformation on various issues. It is the ByteDance company that makes Washington suspicious: the issue has been referred to the Supreme Court, which will be called to express its opinion on January 19th. There are many unknowns about the future; the spokespersons of the social network do not agree and invoke the First Amendment on freedom of speech and of the press. <>, he declared Noel Franciscolawyer for ByteDance. And watch out what he decides on the matter Donald Trump. The President in pectore in 2020 had attempted to boycott the Chinese social network within the States. However, during the last electoral campaign he seems to have changed his mind, going so far as to file a brief to urge the Supreme Court to block the law. Furthermore, the tycoon could ask his new attorney general to refrain from applying it. In any case, the next few days will be decisive.