Tourists are waiting for you in these two regions, to the delight of local players. On the North Shore, the industry knows a good start to the season
despite forecasts that suggested the worst because of the pandemic, explains Mario Leblanc, Director General of Tourisme Côte-Nord.
We have a better start to the season than we initially planned and that’s great
, he says. We feel that the North Shore, with its wide open spaces and its outdoors, meets a current need.
Pandemic forces, the optimist remains cautious, however.
Probably the season looks better because we fear the worst, but it is not a normal season, it is not a season where we will exceed the performance of previous years.
The restarting of the tourist season is however uneven on the territory of the region, in particular because of the absence of an international clientele. The Baie-Comeau and Sept-Îles sectors have had a better start to the season than the Haute-Côte-Nord.
third of the clientele is European “,” text “:” In the Tadoussac sector, two thirds of the clientele is European “}}” lang = “en”>In the Tadoussac sector, two thirds of the clientele is European
, explains Mr. Leblanc. We must therefore work exclusively with Quebec customers, who are also there.
According to him, the enthusiasm of Quebecers to visit their province is an opportunity to make them discover the great outdoors of the North Shore.
Successful restart in Bas-Saint-Laurent
Similar situation in Bas-Saint-Laurent where the tourist season is also promising.
Charles Labrecque, vice-president of Tourisme Bas-Saint-Laurent and owner of the Auberge de la Pointe, located in Rivière-du-Loup, opened his establishment on Friday at half its capacity, and visitors attended you.
The majority of our rooms were full, so it’s good traffic for the first weekend [de la saison]
, he explains.
However, the fears were strong.
We were wondering if we were going to have a season [touristique] only two or three weeks ago.
Since the Quebec government ordered Quebecers to travel to the province, hotel establishments are seeing their occupancy rate improve and ridership is increasing.
People want to get out of big centers
, explains Charles Labrecque. Many people from Quebec and Montreal came down to see our beautiful region.
Despite everything, the absence of foreign visitors weighs as much as on the North Shore. According to him, the volume normal
of tourists is not yet there.
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