“It’s exceptional. The Tour hasn’t set off from France since 2022, and the Nord has been chosen,” enthused Christian Poiret, the department’s president, just a few days before the Grand Départ. It’s an event that local councillors will be delighted to see, given the destination’s worldwide media exposure and the resulting spin-offs.
“It’s a big bill, but it’s also a tourism choice that reinforces the region’s ambitions. It means we can do more than just focus on the coast, including the Baie de Somme and the Côte d’Opale, by working inland with new destinations,” emphasised Xavier Bertrand, President of the Hauts-de-France Regional Council, at the symposium held at the French Senate on the initiative of Alliance France Tourisme and the Régions de France.
Record visitor numbers in Lille
Départ Tour de France 2025 – Lille par Hospitality ON
While we do not yet know the economic impact on the region, we can draw up an initial assessment of the city’s hotel performance based on data supplied by MKG Consulting.
The occupancy rate for hotels in Lille was close to 80% over these few days, 78.9% to be precise, a difference of +21.7 points compared with last year.
Last July had not been all plain sailing for the city, which had hosted the Olympic Torch Relay at the start of the month and a number of cultural events, clearly demonstrating the Tour’s strong appeal.
And the party was already in full swing in the heart of the capital of Flanders on Thursday 3 July with the teams’ parade, an event that attracted more than 42,000 spectators along the entire route. This Thursday recorded the second highest occupancy rate of this period (87.9%), followed unsurprisingly by 4 July, which preceded the start of the race (90.9%).
It’s not just the riders who
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