Eiffel Tower shuts down after staff goes on strike

The Eiffel Tower, one of the world's largest tourist attractions, closed to the public on December 27th after the staff went on strike, the Tower operator announced.

The strike coincides with the 100th anniversary of the engineer's death, Gustave Eiffel, who built the Tower. The staff is protesting “with the way it is currently managed<x1 tower, the CGT association said through a statement.

Tower operator, SETE, said this situation “is headed towards disaster”.

The CGT Association said the management is managing the Eiffel Tower under a highly ambitious and unstable “ ” and based on an inflated assessment of the number of future visitors and at the same time underestimates construction costs.

SETE apologised to visitors, advising all who had bought electronic tickets to visit the Tower on Wednesday to watch their emails for more information on their booking.

The Eiffel Tower of Paris's most famous building draws almost 7 million visitors a year, about three-quarters of which are foreigners, says the Tower website.

During the coronary pandemic, the number of visitors fell because of the closures and restrictions of travel, but the number of visitors increased to 5.9 million in 2022.

The CGT Association said the Tower management is basing its future on the budget of 7.4 million visitors a year, “and why this level of visitors has never been reached”.

Tower engineer Gustave Eiffel died on December 27, 1923, at the age of 91. / REL