1st May bank holiday: a very busy week
OTB – Ponts mois de mai 2025 par Hospitality ON
The first bank holiday in May is enjoying a strong momentum, with bookings up by 8.5%. Several destinations are even posting double-digit increases, including Paris (+17.5%), the eastern Mediterranean coast (+14.5%) and the western Mediterranean coast (+11.8%).
With France Météo forecasting near-summer temperatures, it’s hardly surprising that travellers are flocking to coastal destinations. What’s more, this is set to be the best-weathered May bank holiday of all 2025, unlike last year when it was particularly rainy.
However, this positive trend also extends to more remote destinations, such as the south-west interior (+8.9%) and inland cities outside Paris and the coast (+8.5%).
However, the seafronts further north did not follow this trend, with a fall of -11.5% for the Brittany coast and -7.4% for the North Atlantic coast. Only the Channel coast saw an increase in bookings compared to last year (+3.4%). According to Adrien Lanotte, Senior Data Analyst at MKG Consulting, although booking levels are not as good as last year, they are still good.
8 May bank holiday: an unfavourable calendar effect
All destinations recorded a more or less significant fall in bookings for this second May bank holiday, with the exception of Paris (+4.1%). This difference is simply due to a calendar shift, since in 2024 Ascension Day also fell during this week, whereas this year it falls at the end of the month.
Nationally, the decline was -8.1%. And only a few areas did not record a double-digit fall, including inland cities (-4.4%), the South-West (-5.3%), the eastern Mediterranean coast (-8.1%) and the Ile de France excluding Paris (-9.2%).
These are destinations that are either conducive to short city-breaks, even outside holiday periods, or to sustained MICE activity. So…
