Marseille has overtaken Paris and Nice as the most searched-for French destination on, a sign that the port city has completed its transformation from a maligned second city into a mainstream tourist magnet. Local TV channels have begun asking whether Marseille is now France’s capital of tourism, and visitor numbers are expected to reach almost 7 million this year.
The shift marks a dramatic reversal from two decades ago, when the city was widely avoided by travellers. Visitors arriving at Saint-Charles station would clutch their bags while waiting for connecting trains to rural Provence or the beaches of the Côte d’Azur. Marseille was then seen as down on its luck, unloved, and home to some of Europe’s most disadvantaged neighbourhoods, with poverty and drug gang violence shaping its reputation.
Those problems have not disappeared, but the city has been reinvented as a modish holiday destination. Influencers have played a central role in the rebranding, promoting Marseille’s golden-hued aesthetic, seaside pétanque, vocoder rap, and pizza served on aluminium plates. The city’s most Instagram-friendly corners now draw crowds, and international media coverage has amplified the trend. The New York Times published a «36 hours in Marseille» guide in 2019 and again in 2025, helping to drive a surge in overseas visitors.
For long-time observers, this summer has felt like a tipping point. The city that was once a stopover on the way to somewhere more glamorous has become a destination in its own right, and the consequences are beginning to show. The influx of tourists has raised concerns about overtourism, with locals and commentators asking whether the very qualities that made Marseille attractive are now under threat.
The challenge, as some see it, is to manage the boom without losing what makes the city unique. Marseille’s rough edges, its working-class districts, and its authentic Mediterranean character are part of its appeal, but they are also vulnerable to the pressures of mass tourism. The debate over how to balance economic benefits with preserving local identity is likely to intensify as visitor numbers continue to climb.
Marseille’s rise reflects a broader trend in global travel, where cities once overlooked are being rediscovered through social media and lifestyle journalism. But the speed of the transformation has been remarkable. In little more than twenty years, the city has gone from being a place to avoid to one of the most popular destinations in the most-visited country in the world.
The question now is whether Marseille can sustain its newfound popularity without succumbing to the pitfalls that have affected other European tourist hubs. For residents and regular visitors alike, the hope is that the city can find a way to welcome the crowds while preserving the character that made it worth visiting in the first place.