<div><b><span style="font-size: 1rem;">The Eiffel Tower, one of the world’s prime tourist attractions, was closed today after staff went on strike, the tower’s operator said.</span><br></b></div><div><br></div><div>The strike on the 100th anniversary of the death of engineer Gustave Eiffel, who built the tower, was to protest about “the current way it is managed”, the hard-left CGT union said in a statement.</div><div><br></div><div>The tower’s operator SETE was “headed for disaster”, it said.</div><div><br></div><div>The CGT said management was running the Eiffel Tower according to a business model that was “too ambitious and unsustainable” and that it said was based on an inflated estimate of future visitor numbers while under-estimating construction costs.</div><div><br></div><div>SETE apologised to visitors, advising anyone with electronic tickets for today “to check their email” for more information on their booking.</div><div><br></div><div>The Eiffel Tower – Paris’s most famous landmark – attracts nearly seven million visitors a year, around three-quarters of them foreigners, according to its website.</div><div><br></div><div>During the Covid pandemic numbers dropped sharply due to closures and travel restrictions, but recovered to 5.9 million in 2022.</div><div><br></div><div>The CGT said the tower’s management was basing its future budget on 7.4 million annual visitors, although “this level has never been reached”.</div><div><br></div><div>Eiffel died on Dec 27, 1923, at the age of 91. - AFP </div><div><br></div><div>bnbd24/fas</div>