Three hundred and five million euros. This is the financial hole accumulated by the Eiffel Tower Operating Company (SETE) between 2020 and 2024, revealed by a damning report from the Île-de-France Regional Chamber of Accounts. A dizzying figure for France’s most visited monument, whose global appeal did not suffice to mask years of mismanagement and a painting campaign postponed for fourteen long years.
Key takeaways
- A shocking report exposes the reasons behind the financial collapse of the world’s most coveted Parisian monument
- Since 2010, the crucial maintenance schedule for the monument collapsed, with irreversible structural consequences
- The city raises prices for visitors: should tourists really bear the burden to offset years of mismanagement?
A report pointing to two simultaneous catastrophes
The cumulative losses for SETE from 2020 to 2024 reach the dizzying sum of 305 million euros, a paradox for this globally recognized Parisian symbol, whose appeal did not suffice to offset the devastating effects of the pandemic. Two factors explain this gulf. First, the health crisis, which closed the monument’s doors for many months: the drop in attendance, 10.66 million visitors below initial projections, generated a shortfall of more than 155 million euros. A shock that few tourism enterprises faced to such an extent, including the Louvre Museum or the Palace of Versailles.
The second factor is more indicative of a structural problem. It relates to closures during the health crisis, translating into financial losses of about 149 million euros, and another factor: the tightening of lead exposure protection standards. For the Iron Lady, completed in 1889, it still bears the marks of old painting campaigns carried out with products now deemed hazardous to the health of workers who work there by rope, hundreds of meters above the Champ de Mars.
Fourteen years of waiting that made things worse
The real technical scandal hides in a single figure: fourteen years. That is the time that elapsed between two painting campaigns, whereas the protocol established by Gustave Eiffel himself originally provided for a repaint every seven years. The last painting campaign, delayed fourteen years, aggravated corrosion problems and generated significant extra costs, as noted by architect Boris Weliachew, in charge of heritage matters for the monument.
The assessment is not new. Judicial experts were already warning in 2014 about the worrying state of the metal. A judicial expert estimated that there was great urgency to tackle the corrosion, especially since the adhesion tests of the coatings proved catastrophic, falling below standards. We knew. But nothing really moved until the twentieth painting campaign in the monument’s history was finally launched, this time with an unprecedented approach of stripping the older layers. This campaign entrusted to Boris Weliachew’s agency in 2017 marks a first since it is paired with a process of stripping older layers and structural restoration, a major turning point toward a new conservation approach.
The problem is that this complete stripping was applied only to part of the structure. This solution was used only partially: for the larger portion, only what was peeling off was removed, by chipping and scraping. A painstaking job, performed with masks because of lead and often without scaffolding, only by rope. Result: rust advances faster than expected, and every additional year of delay adds to the bill for the decades ahead.
Rising salaries, pricier tickets
The Regional Chamber of Accounts does not stop at the painting question. It also flags a worrying internal drift in SETE’s payroll. Since 2020, payroll has surged by 31%, while the average salary rose by 17%. The generous pay and bonus policy raises questions: some benefits may not be consistently tied to actual performance. A point all the more sensitive as the company shows record losses in the same period.
Another inconsistency noted by the financial magistrates: maintaining a high number of cashiers despite the growth of online sales, justified by the SETE president as a means to “improve visitors’ experience and reduce their waiting times.” A justification that does not fully convince the Paris City Council members who own the monument through this public local company.
Facing this financial wall, the city decided. A flagship measure was adopted in June 2024: a 29% increase in the ticket price. The municipality hopes to raise nearly 139 million euros more by 2031 thanks to this decision. A risky bet: charging more to the 6.3 million annual visitors to fill a deficit largely caused by years of insufficient maintenance. With 6.3 million visitors in 2024, the Eiffel Tower’s commercial operation remains a concern for the City of Paris, which owns it, the monument being operated under a concession awarded for 14 years, until 2031, to SETE.
The SETE concession expires in 2031, exactly the year when the city hopes to have repaid part of the hole dug since 2020. One question remains that the report does not clearly settle: how many additional painting campaigns will still need to be postponed before the City of Paris fully revises the economic model of its most profitable, and most fragile, monument?
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Sources: ccomptes.fr | fr.finance.yahoo.com | 24matins.fr
