<p class="ingestion featured-caption">The Louvre was filled with tourists around the 2024 Olympics.LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP/Getty Images</p><ul class="summary-list"><li>Paris estimated 11 million people visited the city during the Olympics, fewer than expected.</li><li>Photos show how Olympics-related closures and crowds affected visitors' experiences.</li></ul><p>You might assume hosting the Olympics is great for a city's economy thanks to an influx of visitors staying in hotels, dining out, and enjoying the sights.</p><p>But the <a target="_blank" class href="https://www.businessinsider.com/economic-benefits-of-hosting-olympics-2014-10">financial benefits of hosting the Olympics</a> aren't so clear. The Games can end up costing a host country billions of dollars and can leave behind <a target="_blank" class href="https://www.businessinsider.com/abandoned-olympic-venues-current-day-pictures-2016-5">structures that sit empty for years</a>.</p><p>Ahead of this year's Olympics, Paris tried to mitigate losses by relying on <a target="_blank" class href="https://www.businessinsider.com/olympics-paris-stadiums-venues-photos-2024-6">existing venues</a> and making detailed plans for the future of other structures, including the <a target="_blank" class href="https://www.businessinsider.com/first-olympic-village-photos-1924-paris-olympics-2024-7">Olympic Village</a>.</p><p>But it was unclear how many visitors would pay to travel to Paris during the Games. Several airlines said they anticipated a loss in revenue as fewer people appeared to be interested in traveling to Paris than in previous summers.</p><p>"Unless you're going to the Olympics, people aren't going to Paris," Delta CEO Ed Bastian <a target="_blank" class href="https://www.cnbc.com/2024/07/29/travel-to-paris-dropped-because-of-the-summer-olympic-games.html">told CNBC in July</a>. He estimated the airline would lose up to $100 million because of the Olympics.</p><p>But as the Games got underway and spectators poured into the stadiums and streets, it became clear that Paris was still bustling — though with sports fans rather than shoppers.</p><p>A <a target="_blank" class href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexledsom/2024/08/12/how-the-olympics-made-paris-more-tourist-friendly/">Forbes report</a> said the French newspaper Le Monde estimated that 1.3 million people visited at least one so-called fan zone, or area for watching sports, in Paris during the Olympics. France's tourism minister, Olivia Grégoire, told the French paper La Tribune Dimanche, <a target="_blank" class href="https://www.reuters.com/sports/olympics/french-hotels-bars-museums-boosted-by-olympics-says-minister-2024-08-11/">per Reuters</a>, that museum attendance was up by 25% compared with the same period in 2023 and that the number of hotel guests increased by 16%.</p><p>Visa, the Olympics' payment partner, reported a 42% increase in customers in Paris during the first week of the Games compared with the same week last summer.</p><p>Overall, the Paris tourism office estimated 11 million people visited the city during the Olympics, down from its initial estimate of 15 million. Still, 11 million was a 4% increase from 2023's visitor numbers for the same period, it said.</p><p>It remains to be seen whether visitor rates will stay consistent for the Paralympics, which kicked off in Paris this week. But as evidenced by other <a target="_blank" class href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-olympic-stadiums-look-like-now-2021-7">host cities</a>, Paris is likely to feel the effects of these games for years to come.</p><p>Here's what it looked like to be a tourist in Paris during this year's Olympics.</p>