2023-08-07 08:03:24
The construction holidays are coming to an end and several regions of Quebec have noticed a slowdown in tourist traffic resulting in a loss of income during the season.
This situation differs with pandemic years, when tourism was higher within the province due to international travel restrictions.
Thus, tourist destinations, such as the Zoo de Granby and Tourisme Gaspésie, received 10% fewer visitors in 2023 compared to last year.
Certainly, comparing ourselves with the pandemic is difficult all the same, because we had a lot of people [les dernières années]explains Stéphanie Thibault, Director of Marketing and Communications at Tourisme Gaspésie.
The situation is even less rosy for the Parc de la Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, in Laval, for which the marked drop in traffic has had a significant financial impact this year.
We’re talking about a 40 to 50% decrease in our income compared to last year, so it’s still quite worrying.
Back to normal
This situation can be explained by the end of health measures, encouraging many Quebecers to leave the province during their vacation, unlike in recent years.
We are rebalancing the market to the pre-pandemic situation. Businesses have benefited from a very large domestic market in the past two years because the population could not travel outside our borders, says Martin Soucy, President and CEO Alliance de l’industrie touristique du Québec
The end of the pandemic is also an opportunity for international tourists to come and visit Montreal this year. Several merchants in the metropolis have also noted an increase in the number of international tourists.
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Unlike other regions, Montreal experienced an interesting tourist season due to the return of international visitors.
Photo : Radio-Canada / Daniel Thomas
We are really exploding all the numbers this year compared to last year, notes Henrique Rodrigues, marketing manager of the Grande Roue de Montréal, located in the Old Port.
Montréal-Trudeau airport expects a return to traffic comparable to 2019. The organization Tourisme Montréal, for its part, forecasts 10 million visitors to the city before the end of the year, an increase compared to to the estimates made at the start of 2023.
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The report by Elyse Allard
The vagaries of the weather… and inflation
Despite the large number of international tourists in Montreal, many claim to have suffered the repercussions of the capricious weather this summer, discouraging some from going out to restaurants or shops.
The heavy rains we had on fireworks nights, for example, have a direct influence on restaurant traffic, explains Bruno Zarka, a restaurant owner with a storefront in Old Montreal.
For visitors, inflation is also an element that slows down spending. This is the case of a visitor to Montreal who said on Sunday that because of inflation, everything has exploded, and that it costs more to go out to eat in a restaurant.
Group tour operators, among others, are disappointed by the drop in ridership and are counting heavily on favorable weather in August and on European tourists in September to complete this summer of 2023.
With information from Elyse Allard
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