Travel rush to Paris begins ahead of Summer Olympics

Feb. 27 (UPI) -- With the 2024 Summer Olympics just a few months away, travelers are already buying plane tickets to Paris and booking hotels in France in preparation for the 33rd Olympic games.

On Tuesday, travel marketing platform Sojern released its latest travel data associated with the games, which run from July 26 to Aug. 11, 2024.

As of 2023, Paris has caught up to pre-pandemic tourism numbers, according to the study and visitors started booking trips to France in November of 2023, when tickets for the 2024 Olympic Games first went on sale.

"For the period of the Olympic Games in 2024, flight bookings, not just searches, to Paris are up 125% compared to the same travel period last year," the report reads.

The first round of ticket sales for the 2024 Olympics was drawn by lottery and quickly sold out. In November, organizers released more than 400,000 tickets to the public.

The Sojern report also found that a majority of travelers are "planning to leave Paris the day the Olympics end" and about 24% of bookings during the Olympic period are coming from the United States.

Visitors from Canada, United Kingdom, Japan and Spain are also heavily booking trips to the Olympics this year.

Meanwhile, 49% of Parisians have started to plan their escape during the games, with hopes of avoiding the crowds. The Sojern report found city dwellers would be traveling to places like Lille, Nice, Corsica, Lyon and Toulouse for some respite.