The rooms of the Caen Memorial are sparse at the moment. Usually, the museum, as well as the Circular Cinema of Arromanches and the Memorial of the Civilians of Falaise (managed by the same company), welcome approximately 650,000 visitors each year. “We have lost 370,000,” laments, fatalist, the director general of the Caen Memorial, Stéphane Grimaldi.
To the point that the site will adapt its opening slots for the end of the year. After the All Saints holidays, it will just be open on weekends, holidays, and public holidays. Ditto in Arromanches. November will mark the beginning of the usual annual closure of the Falaise museum. For the first two cities, this strong decision is dictated by the collapse in attendance.
“We hope that Parisians will come to All Saints’ Day”
“We lose money every day, slips Stéphane Grimaldi. In September, in Caen, we welcomed less than 30% of our usual visitors. So we hope that the Parisians will come to All Saints’ Day to redo the icing a little, but I am not under any illusions. The outlook is very uncertain, even negative.
Fall serves as the first revealer of the coming season. This year, “we have almost nothing. We know the Americans will not come. We don’t feel that the British will make a comeback either. We learn to be pessimistic. Moreover, we have more interest in being pessimistic when making our forecasts, ”says the director general of the Caen Memorial.
Stéphane Grimaldi: is all the more worried as the difficulties of the sites he manages are a sad echo of the slump in memory tourism in Normandy. “I met with local museum officials from WWII. All have experienced a disaster. Winter will be very long. “
Coach and tour operators are also suffering greatly
The company managing the Caen Memorial and the Arromanches and Falaise sites lost seven million euros in turnover (out of around 11 million euros in a typical year). Around it, various providers, such as coach operators or tour operators, are also suffering greatly. “Some will disappear. However, they bring thousands of visitors. What weaken a potential recovery, at least a start.
The exhibition “The Liberation of Painting, 1945-1962”, at the Caen Memorial, was extended until February. But it will not be enough to attract enough people. In March, the manager had counted on several scenarios. The darker still predicted a good last quarter of 2020. The end of the year will finally be synonymous with a partial closure, almost become inexorable.
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