The Parisian tourism industry, a huge money-making machine traditionally requiring little effort or grace to keep it running, appears to be grinding to a halt. International arrivals are down by 8.1% on last year, hotel occupancies by more than 10%, and the queues for the Eiffel Tower – celebrating its 120th birthday this year – have rarely been shorter.

With tumbleweed blowing down the Champs Elysées, the jobs of about one in eight Parisians employed in the £9 billion tourist trade are at risk, and Bertrand Lecourt, president of the hotel association L’Hôtellerie Familiale, says the city is facing “a catastrophe”.

“Since last November, each month has been worse than the last,” says Michel Duval, who runs a brasserie in Clignancourt. “Takings are down by 25%, I have had to lay staff off, and if we don’t see some tourists soon, I’ll be laying off more.”

Hotels in what has traditionally been the world’s most visited city have responded by slashing prices by up to 70%, so if you fancy Paris in the spring, now’s the time to book a bargain. The rack rate for the Hotel Ascot Opera (ascotparishotel.com), in the heart of the city, is £177 per night. Book now, through the tourist board’s website, paris.info, and a double room is just £68. Similarly, rates at the four-star Le Marquis (hotel-lemarquis. com), in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, are down from £291 to £144.

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Dining is cheaper, too: at the Hôtel Plaza Athénée, in the upmarket 8th, the Relais Plaza restaurant has brought in a £45 fixed-price menu, less than half the average à la carte price.

The crisis has prompted some soul-searching along the boulevards, with concern that it’s not just the global economic crisis that’s keeping tourists away. “People aren’t masochists – they won’t come if the welcome they receive continues to be so bad,” says Thierry Baudier, of the French Tourist Office.

He admits that Paris can no longer trade on culture and cuisine alone.

“We’re teaching taxi drivers to speak a few words in the languages of tourists and retraining front-of-house staff in how they present themselves.”

If you think everyone’s backing the be-nice-to-tourists drive, however, think again. “Imagine these fat, badly dressed people coming into your restaurant day after day, complaining about the size of the Coca-Colas, asking for chips with everything and not even trying to speak your language,” said André Quelern, a waiter. “Frankly, it is hard to be nice.”

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