Paris is the world’s most popular travel destination and welcomes around 48 million people every
year. The economic benefits of tourism clash against the city’s efforts to conserve what they deem to be historical landmarks — including residential buildings — breeding tension among the city’s inhabitants. Along with other so- called “Eurosummer” destinations, Paris is slowly turning itself into an open air museum for the sake of its visitors — at the expense of its residents’ livelihood.

Like many other European cities, Paris is dealing with a housing crisis and has faced a steady population decline since 2012. Parisians are struggling to find decent affordable housing, which is in large part linked to the rise of short term home rental services like AirBnB. Landlords would much rather rent to tourists for short term stays than to residents all year round for less money. Unlike other destinations like Barcelona and Berlin, where home-sharing of single rooms is a common practice, 87 per cent of Paris’s short-term rentals are entire apartments, which otherwise could have been all-year round rentals.

Parisian architectural design poses an additional challenge for its residents, as the emblematic 19th- century Haussmannian buildings can be a pain to live in. As of 2024, zinc roofers’ craftsmanship on Parisian Haussmannian buildings has been added to the UNESCO cultural heritage list. Though very beautiful on the outside, those iconic zinc roofs do a deplorable job at regulating temperatures inside the home. This issue has been especially pressing in the past few years during the repeated heatwaves in Western Europe, with temperatures reaching 40°C this summer. Renters living on top floors of Haussmannian buildings have described “going crazy” in the heat with temperatures reaching 35°C inside, which can cause dehydration, heat exhaustion, or even heatstroke. Students are particularly an affected demographic as they often choose these lower-rent apartments. However, switching out the zinc roofs for a more sustainable alternative is out of the question, especially now that these designs have been listed by UNESCO.

The increase in short term rentals and the conservation of old landmarks feeds into the housing crisis which itself is a factor in the decline of population in the city. While this decline is partly due to the aging population, many Parisians end up moving out of the city to find affordable housing with more space. In terms of preserving residents’ quality of life, other touristic destinations such as Barcelona have elected their mayor on a promise to fight the housing crisis by revoking short-term rentals licenses, for instance. Paris has yet to take actions to protect residents against short-term rentals.

Furthermore, tourism often comes along with mass consumption, which can damage the social web of the city and accelerate gentrification. While high rates of tourism might stimulate economic growth and employment, it can create friction with the residents of these areas. In 2025, the city of Paris profited €24 billion from tourism, and 1 out of 10 jobs in Paris are now dependent on the tourism industry.

The tourist’s appetite for sightseeing takes shape as a “tourist gaze” that shifts urban planners’ focus away from residents and towards the marketability of the city. For instance, the city’s current focus is shifting towards a “luxury” clientele with higher purchasing power to maximize profits. As tourists come to a certain city, retail businesses shift around them. Neighbourhood services such as grocery stores, local markets, or even laundromats are being replaced by boutiques, high- end restaurants, and American-style coffee shops. “Authentic French restaurants” tend to pop up in neighbourhoods such as Montmartre, le Marais, or le Quartier Latin with English-only menus providing “typical French food” any tourist would expect to eat in France at an inflated price. Social media leads mass tourism to operate in a snowball effect, a viral video is enough to replace a shop’s local clientele with an interminable line of transients. In fact, the small local bakery my brother used to frequent has been deemed “the best bakery in Paris” on TikTok and now has a permanent waiting line. As the city is
slowly changing in order to appeal to its many visitors, how can it live up to the expectations of people traveling for an “authentic” experience?

The issues Paris faces are observed in any given city with an increasing reliance on tourism to drive their economy. Tourism grew exponentially from 25 million international tourists in 1950, to 1.3 billion in 2017, and that number is expected to go up to 1.8 billion in 2030. In many places like Paris, tourism is one of the main embodiments of unchecked capitalism. Tourist attractions today are consumed quickly, a moment captured in a photograph or a video, which is then posted on social media to join thousands of almost identical posts. People’s real, everyday lives become a piece of entertainment, a bullet point on someone’s bucket list, an “exotic” highlight on someone’s Instagram profile. Entire neighbourhoods’ livelihoods wither away, while the architecture of the city slowly but surely freezes itself in time.

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