Eiffel Tower ticket prices soar 20%: Here's the new costs and reasons behind the hike
File photo of Paris's Eiffel tower
Since June 17, Eiffel Tower's ticket rates have been raised by almost 20 per cent to help offset the strain of the ever-rising maintenance costs. Adults who used to just have to pay €29.10 to view the French capital from the top of the "Iron Lady" now have to pay more than €35.
The public company running the iconic structure, Société d'Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel (SETE), hopes to turn the page on a labour dispute that resulted in the tower's temporary closure in February and balance its books with the proceeds from the ticket price hike, which applies to all tickets.
Between February 19 and 24, visitors to one of the top 10 tourist destinations, the Eiffel Tower, were let down by the news that it would be closed due to a strike. The two labour unions at the monument had declared a few days prior that they would cease operations in order to secure a “viable and realistic economic model” for the tower.
The allure of the Eiffel Tower as a tourist destination continues to grow. The monument saw its largest number of visitors since 2015 in 2023, with almost 6.3 million people.
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Factors that contributed to the hike in ticket costs
- The city of Paris owns 99 per cent of the publicly traded corporation SETE, which is still recovering from the Covid-19 outbreak. The Tower's prolonged closure resulted in a fourfold decrease in revenue for the property in 2020, with €25 million collected as opposed to €99 million the previous year. Paris City Hall predicts that between 2020 and 2022, the gap amounted to €113 million.
- The site's maintenance expenditures have skyrocketed, with new costs surpassing €130 million. A portion of the monument's 360 workers accuse SETE and Paris City Hall of causing delays that have raised the cost.
- In addition, SETE has to compensate the city of Paris for a significant rise in the licensing charge it pays to operate the monument. By 2025, the charge, which went from 8 to €15 million in 2021, is expected to reach €50 million.
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