Parisians and tourists were left disappointed on Wednesday as the Eiffel Tower closed its doors due to a staff strike.
The workers, represented by the CGT union, protested against the management of the iconic monument, which they claimed was heading for a financial crisis.
The strike coincided with the 100th anniversary of the death of Gustave Eiffel, the engineer who designed and built the tower that bears his name. Eiffel was also responsible for many other architectural marvels around the world, such as the Statue of Liberty in New York and the Pest railway station in Hungary.
The CGT accused the tower's operator SETE of running the monument with an unrealistic business model, based on inflated visitor numbers and underestimated maintenance costs. The union said the tower needed more funding to preserve its 130-year-old structure, which still has some original lifts from 1899.
SETE apologized to the visitors who had booked tickets online and advised them to check their email for more information. The Eiffel Tower, which attracts nearly seven million visitors a year, mostly foreigners, saw a drop in attendance during the Covid pandemic, but recovered to 5.9 million in 2022. The CGT said the management was expecting 7.4 million visitors a year, a level that has never been reached.
Some visitors expressed their frustration at being turned away from the 1,083-feet tower, while others said they were still happy to see it from afar. The strike lasted for one day and the tower is expected to reopen on Thursday.
