Eiffel Tower Staff Strikes Over Long Queues
 

https://www.independent.co.uk/travel...-a8474201.html

The Eiffel Tower was shut for two days by staffers frustrated with absurdly long lines for folks to get in who did not book in advance and even delays for them. Anyway interesting story for those planning to visit.

A strike that closes the Eiffel Tower because workers feel bad that the visitor lines are too long? How very French.

Once again, I'm reminded of how much more enjoyable it was to visit the big European cities a couple of decades ago.

Did you actually read the article?

"The number of tickets set aside for advanced internet booking has also been increased from 20 to 50 per cent. As a result, lifts for advanced customers are reported to be half-empty during off-peak times, despite walk-in customers waiting for extended periods."

Did you understand the motives of the strike?

"Staff have requested more flexibility in managing the thousands of visitors who flock to the tourist attraction every day during this peak summer period."

Staff went on strike to be able to get more people up the tower in off-peak time.
This must have been a major issue for people wanting to get up the tower on that day, agreed.
But from an overall perspective, the staff went on strike to offer better, more flexible and quicker service to vistors.
Not because they were lazy or demanded more money.

Aint't it a good thing that staff cares more about visitors than the management which implemented a new but worse queueing system?

The strike ended yesterday morning, but if management doesn't change its policies, I'm sure it will start again.

The number of tickets set aside for advanced internet booking has also been increased from 20 to 50 per cent. As a result, lifts for advanced customers are reported to be half-empty during off-peak times>>

I must be dense but I don't understand this sentence. Why would increasing sales by up to 50 pct result in the elevators being half empty for those type of tickets? I could understand it if that meant that there really was some off peak time period that advanced customers didn't even want so those tickets went unsold. Mayb e there is an explanation missing from this article as to why that would be true, it would have to be that there was oversupply of those tickets which went unsold. But that's just surprising to me given they seem to sell out weeks or months in advance for all time periods I've seen. In any case, this seems like a situation easy to resolve by management if they measure the situation and find those elevators are half used and the others are too full.

"Aint't it a good thing that staff cares more about visitors than the management which implemented a new but worse queueing system?"

Yes, but... I feel sorry for people who have only one chance in their lives to visit Paris and perhaps, for whatever reason (esp. those who booked in advance), have only those particular days to visit the Eiffel Tower. Maybe they would have preferred to wait a couple of hours rather than be told, "Too bad for you, but hopefully everyone after you will have a better experience."

Why is striking the only way to get the attention of higher-ups? And for two days? Were they all on vacation or just not answering their phones? Was there really no thought to filling those half-empty elevators until the higher-ups figure out a solution?

Christina -- I know you seldom return for follow up discussion but just in case >>Why would increasing sales by up to 50 pct result in the elevators being half empty for those type of tickets?<<

Cowboy didn't mention increased sales. He/the article said >>The number oftickets set aside for advanced internet booking has also been increased from 20 to 50 per cent. As a result, lifts for advanced customers are reported to be half-empty during off-peak times, despite walk-in customers waiting for extended periods."<<.

Which means the tickets are set aside -- not necessarily booked. So, unless all advance purchase tix are sold -- those elevators would not be full.

Frankly, that is exactly the problem. The majority of tourists have grown up with the idea that when you want to visit an attraction, you have to queue up to get in. It is only quite recently that "VIP" and advance purchase passes were invented and most of the people of the world (should I say -- China, India...?) do not understand this concept. It is only a small fraction of tourists who have the internet reflex to get their super duper access to things they want to see. Obviously, these are the high revenue tourists, so the people in charge want to do everything possible to please them.

So they reserve certain elevators for these wonderful rich people and don't give a crap about the low end tourists who are just waiting in line.

I don't systematically support strikes by the workers in Paris, but this one makes plenty of sense to me.

It would be a simple thing to put in the reservation confirmation that if you're not standing in the correct place with your printed confirmation 10-15 minutes before your reserved time slot, you lose your elevator status and can either wait for the next available no-show slot or walk away. In those minutes, several people waiting in line could be accommodated.

Airlines do this very effectively. If you don't show up for your flight within so many minutes of departure, you are not going to board and wait-listed people will take your place. The same thing is done at several museums and other sights I have visited in recent years.

The elevators are very far apart. Do you have a solution for selecting a group of people and escorting them to a different elevator without being sure of how many can be transported (since people with reservations might suddenly show up)?

I was in Paris a couple of weeks ago and was quite dismayed by the amount of construction taking place at the Eiffel Tower, Chaillot and Place du Concorde.