Photos show what it was like to be a tourist at the Paris Olympics

• Paris estimates 11 million people visited the city during the Olympics, fewer than expected.
• Photos show how Olympics-related closures and congestion have affected visitor experiences.
• This story is part of “Road to Paris,” a series chronicling the experiences of athletes and spectators at the Olympic Games.

You might assume that hosting the Olympics is great for a city’s economy, thanks to the influx of visitors staying in hotels, dining out and enjoying the sights.

But the financial benefits of hosting the Olympics are not so clear. The Games can end up costing a host country billions of dollars and leave behind structures that sit empty for years.

Ahead of this year’s Olympics, Paris tried to mitigate the losses by building on existing venues and making detailed plans for the future of other structures, including the Olympic Village.

But it was unclear how many visitors would pay to travel to Paris during the Games. Several airlines said they anticipated a loss of revenue as fewer people appeared to be interested in traveling to Paris than in previous summers.

“If you don’t go to the Olympics, people won’t go to Paris,” Delta CEO Ed Bastian told CNBC in July. He estimated that the airline would lose up to $100 million because of the Olympics.

But as the Games began and spectators poured into the stadiums and streets, it became clear that Paris was still alive, albeit with sports fans rather than shoppers.

A Forbes report said French newspaper Le Monde estimated 1.3 million people visited at least one so-called fan zone, or sports viewing area, in Paris during the Olympics. France’s Tourism Minister, Olivia Grégoire, told French newspaper La Tribune Dimanche, per Reuters, that attendance at museums was up 25 percent over the same period in 2023 and hotel guests were up 16 percent.

Visa, the payment partner of the Olympics, reported a 42% increase in customers in Paris in the first week of the Games compared to the same week last summer.

Overall, the Paris tourist office estimated that 11 million people visited the city during the Olympics, down from its original estimate of 15 million. Still, the 11 million represented a 4% increase on 2023 visitor numbers for the same period, it said.

It remains to be seen whether visitor rates will remain constant for the Paralympics, which began this week in Paris. But as other host cities are proving, Paris will likely feel the effects of these games for years to come.

Here’s what it was like to be a tourist in Paris during this year’s Olympics.