Eli
Mwenda gleefully snapped photos of his sister Rebekah Mithinji by the Eiffel
Tower on a beautiful afternoon this week, two of many travelers enjoying a
long-overdue respite in Paris after the COVID-19 outbreak canceled their
vacation plans.
Mithinji's
graduation present was a vacation to Paris for the siblings, which was
originally scheduled for 2020. Mithinji came from the United Kingdom, and
Mwenda came from Kenya, and they ultimately made it two years later.
"I'm
so glad we made it, it's been such a long time coming," said Mithinji, all
smiles under her sunglasses.
"It's
refreshing, feels like we're sort of going back to normal," added Mwenda.
"Walking around the street, seeing people's faces without masks, going to
restaurants."
Foreign
visitors are expected to grow more than fivefold in May-July compared to the
same period last year, owing primarily to tourists from Spain, Germany, the
United Kingdom, and Italy, according to the Paris tourist office.
However,
this will be a third lower than pre-pandemic levels, owing to the fact that
American and Asian tourists are not expected to return in big numbers for some
time.
Manager
Jonas Seignovert of Chez Eugene, a restaurant on the picturesque Place du
Tertre in the heart of Montmartre, was relieved to see tourists returning.
"We've
had quite a few Italians, quite a few Spaniards, some from Eastern Europe
countries, quite a few British people, it remains really European,"
Seignovert said, adding he had also seen some Brazilians and U.S. tourists, but
almost no Asians.
He
had altered his service during the epidemic to accommodate to the tastes of
Parisians rather than his typical tourism clients, which had vanished. He's
looking for a mix of local and foreign clients now that tourists are back.
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