Montreal’s tourism season kicks off, as city sees first day of summer-like weather

Montreal’s tourist season is officially launched, on a day that felt like summer in the city — with the sun shining and temperatures reaching 27°C — just as  Tourisme Montréal unveiled its summer plans on Tuesday.

“We’ve got a lot of new things,” said Yves Lalumière, president and CEO of Tourisme Montréal. “All the festivals are there — Just For Laughs, it’s back on full force as well.”

Montreal’s tourism office says it’s adapting its marketing strategy this year to take advantage of Canadians staycationing because of U.S. tensions, and also reaching out to Americans with an ad campaign to “stretch your dollar further in Montréal.”

“It’s going to be a different recipe this year, because we feel there’s going to be maybe a little negativ(ity) on the U.S.; but really at this point, we’re just minus three per cent,” said Lalumière, referring to a slight decline currently in U.S. visitors to Montreal.

The Tourisme Montréal executive said a projected three per cent increase of U.S. tourists would bring levels back to baseline, and a forecasted five per cent rise in domestic tourism to Montreal would boost tourism in the city.

“Despite everything that’s happened, we’re still looking at a good and positive,” he continued. “The international markets continue to do extremely well for us.”

“When it when it comes to tourism, everybody wants to have good time,” said Salah Moussallati, visiting Montreal from Saudi Arabia this week. “Montreal is a very nice place to spend in summer. The Formula 1 is about to come as well.”

Last year’s fiasco during the Formula 1 Grand Prix weekend, surrounding terraces on Peel street being shut down by the fire department, is something merchants plan to avoid this year.

“Let’s forget about the story of the Grand Prix from last year,” said Alain Creton, who owns the downtown restaurant Chez Alexandre, and is president of the Peel Street Merchants’ Association. “This year, everybody was with us. Since two weeks ago, they all came over. The special fire department, they came over. They made sure everything was fine. The city was behind us.”

Recent reports revealed promoters of F1 could pull the plug on the Montreal race beyond 2029 based on their contract, but Tourisme Montreal says citizens don’t have to worry.

“I’m part of the negotiations, right? So the thing is that we’ve got a contract until 2031,” said Lalumière. “We’re always one of the first to extend our contract. Formula 1 love us.”

In March 2017, a multi-year contract was signed between Canadian Grand Prix organisers and F1’s owner, Liberty Media, until the end of 2029. However, F1 could not travel to Canada in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so these years were added to the existing contract, which now runs until 2031.

“Last year, we had a tough edition on the logistics standpoint. Whatever could go wrong, went wrong,” said Lalumière. “Now we’ve got our act together. Everybody’s been working very hard at it.”

The hotel industry is getting a boost as well, after union members at the Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth hotel downtown ratified the agreement in principle to renew their collective agreement. According to Lalumière, the hotel accounts for four per cent of hotel rooms in Montreal.

“This is our biggest hotel in Quebec,” said Lalumière. “To have it closed during the Grand Prix or during the summer season would have been very difficult for us.”

Montreal now has direct flights to 156 destinations in close 50 countries, with new routes to Naples, Valencia, Edinburgh, Cincinnati and Bermuda. Some airlines have also increased seat capacity on existing routes to and from France — up 23 per cent for Nantes and 3 per cent for Bordeaux.

One French couple from Orléans, southwest of Paris, France, paid Montreal a visit this week.

“We’re doing a tour of Old Montreal, visiting the basilica, and Chinatown,” said Monique Hebras in French, standing by the Old Port on Tuesday. “Today, it’s nice outside.”

In a climate of global economic instability, the Montreal’s tourism industry hopes to come out on top.

“I’m just going to sit down in the sun somewhere and read,” said Clare Bury, visiting this week from Manchester, England. “It’s lovely, lots of different people here, lots of nationalities — French, and Canadian, and American.”

“I think every summer Montreal is so crowded with tourists,” said Moussallati. “It’s a nice place to be.”