With more than three million visitors in 2023 during the Christmas market period, the city center of Strasbourg was a bit overwhelmed. Blocked streets, difficulties for emergency services to get through, big traffic jams on the outskirts… Also, the authorities, like the municipality, have been taking or experimenting for several years with different measures to manage the flow of visitors. Both to make strolling through the streets lined with chalets and lit up more pleasant and safer, and so that it is more “liveable” for local residents during the end-of-year holidays.
Among the measures taken in 2024, the experimentation of one-way pedestrian traffic in certain streets on weekends. The idea of, as in Venice, overtaken by overtourism, introducing an entrance fee on busy days is also mentioned by some. If “this toll” pleases some, it amounts to complete delirium for Claude: “No, no and no! »And there’s not even room for discussion.
Not much more verbose but just as determined, Didier assures us that “charging for the Strasbourg Christmas market would be nonsense! » There is no need to beat around the bush, the idea of paid access to the Christmas market is unanimously against it. Both in substance and form.
“It’s not the spirit of Christmas, it’s already become enough of a commercial affair as it is,” says Louise. “And why not a free market in the morning when it’s closed for the poor, and a paying market in the afternoon for the rich! », quips another Internet user from 20 Minutes. “That would prevent families from coming, and that’s not Christmas,” adds a merchant. “If it’s an attraction, then why not, like Parc Astérix in a way,” laughs Gabriel. “We should put in pedometers to tax visitors by the number of steps,” adds Corolanne.
“The market belongs to everyone”
When Benjamin simply explains “that we already pay enough within the market” and “thinks that it will ruin everything”, Julien is simply worried about the usefulness of such a measure: “The problem, if we make the paid Christmas market is about determining the price. Too low, it won’t change anything, and too high, there won’t be enough people for certain shops to be profitable. » Pragmatic and with a sense of business, he also raises the question of the use of the money eventually collected: “If we set the entrance fee at 3 euros, that would perhaps relieve congestion a little bit, but it Strasbourg residents would either have to feel it on their property tax, or there would have to be an additional benefit to compensate. » “The market belongs to everyone, it must remain free”, underlines Frédéric who adds that “the food sold on the market is already quite expensive”.
Laurent also, like the others, formally opposes it and denounces a new form of taxation. “I don’t know of any paid Christmas market, whether in France or abroad. Once again we want to regulate the world but we want to tax people. » “It’s a way to discover this city and its culture. Not everything can be paid for,” says Jean-Marie.
“Do you want to kill the Christmas market or something? »
Gordana, a Nancy resident who visited the Strasbourg Christmas market for the first time, was surprised by fewer crowds than feared. She assures that paid access would be “a hindrance”. “We already spend a lot there among the bredele and pretzel stands,flamekueches and various gifts. If entry became charged, I would favor the towns of Colmar and Riquewihr, much prettier to my taste and free. »
And what do the traders in their chalet think? “Are you serious?” says one of them in his wooden hut at the foot of the cathedral. Do you want people to go to other cities or something? That’s not the spirit, the crowds regulate themselves so far, people also come back during the week when there are fewer people. Do you want to kill the Christmas market or something? »
A massive no in substance, and also in form. “How would it be controlled and by whom? This is complete rubbish! Local residents would be exempt, but not their families and those who visit them? It would be really complicated,” asks Thibaut, a Strasbourg resident from the city center. “Is it for the return of checkpoints with long queues? », worries Jean, another resident of the city center. The market is spread “in so many different places in the city that I don’t even imagine it’s possible. Would it simply make access to the city paying? Unthinkable,” according to Eline.
The mayor of Strasbourg brushes aside the idea
Lucien points out the behavior of tour operators, guided tours and other groups who travel “despite common sense, good citizenship and the Highway Code”. Not enough to make access to the market paid “but to regulate the mass tourism business, yes”. “In any case, these groups only stay for the day and this benefits neither restaurateurs nor hoteliers and hardly local businesses,” he says.
Our Christmas market file
But don’t panic. As for Strasbourg town hall, the idea of paid access has been completely ruled out. Recently interviewed by 20 Minutesthe environmentalist mayor Jeanne Barseghian immediately set the record straight and directly brushed aside this idea which did not seem “very Christmas magic” to her. “We have the responsibility for it to be fluid, we do not want to reduce the number of visitors but we want to increase the quality of the welcome. We want to guarantee that the daily life of Strasbourg residents can be preserved, reassures the councilor. This is not at all on the agenda.”
