2017 a good year for tourism in Gatineau

Simon Deschamps

With all the festivities surrounding the Canada 150 celebrations in the region, 2017 was a record year for tourism in the Outaouais. On April 10, Tourisme Outaouais presented its report for the last year to Gatineau’s elected officials. According to this report, between March 2017 and March 2018, 29,600 people came through the tourist information office doors, an 84% increase compared to the previous year. Furthermore, accommodation bookings in the urban Outaouais region saw its biggest increase ever, surpassing those of Quebec, Laval and Montreal.

The heads of Tourisme Outaouais attribute the successes to “signature events” that came to Gatineau. Last summer, the Jacques-Cartier Park hosted MosaïCanada while the Zibi site hosted the Cirque du Soleil Volta show.

Tourisme Outaouais’ DG, France Bélisle, hopes to continue surfing on this wave of summer 2017 tourist success. She encourages the City to have the 2 million dollar investment in tourism become a recurrent investment, as it has done for 2017 and the coming summer. For now, the City has a memorandum of understanding with Tourisme Outaouais for the amount of $415,000.

A tourism approach for Aylmer?

Mayor Pedneaud-Jobin and Aylmer Councillor Audrey Bureau brought up Old Aylmer, especially its rue Principale that Tourisme Outaouais should promote as a tourist destination. They regret the lack of visibility of Old Aylmer in promotional material developed by the organization.

“Old Aylmer has many interesting tourism features coming. We will be putting up interpretation signage along rue Principale, a new pavilion will be built in parc des Cèdres […] so many, you could reconsider this in your strategic plan,” declared Ms Bureau to Tourisme Outaouais.

Ms Bélisle explained that her organization focuses on three areas for tourism development which are Chelsea-Wakefield-Gatineau Park, Montebello and centre town Hull with “an arm extending to Aylmer’s rue Principale”.

Ms Bélisle recognized that “there may be a bit less visuals for Old Aylmer,” in the organization’s promotional campaigns. She adds that to be attractive for a tourist, an area must have multiple experiences to offer. She notes that Aylmer is starting to develop on that aspect, namely because of its well established gastronomic offer. Ms Bélisle says the sector is part of the organization’s strategic plan.
(Trans.: CB)