Starkly different realities emerge in lodging scene
Summer in the lodging industry is shaping up as a tale of two Quebecs.
After a slow start, hotel bookings in regions from Charlevoix to Gaspésie have taken off in recent weeks, and operators are hoping to make up at least some of the lost ground in July. The upswing is in sharp contrast with the dire situation in Montreal, where industry officials warn of permanent hotel closures as event cancellations pile up and out-of-towners shun Canada’s COVID -19 hot spot.
“There are two very different realities this year: large urban centres like Montreal, and the regions,” said Marc-antoine Vachon, a marketing professor at Université du Québec à Montréal who focuses on tourism. “It won’t be easy for Montreal.”
Hotels in Quebec’s biggest city expect to be no more than 15 per cent full this summer, according to Eve Paré, chief executive officer of the Hotel Association of Greater Montreal. That pales in comparison with average occupancy rates of 86 per cent for the June-september 2019 period.
Montreal hotels lost a combined $149 million in lodging revenue during April and May compared with the year-earlier period, association data show.
City hotels have temporarily laid off about 85 per cent of their staff, which translates to about 12,000 people, Paré said. About half of the association’s 100-plus members have suspended their operations, she said. “I’d like tell you we’re seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, but that’s not the case,” Paré said.
Many hotel owners in Montreal invested massively during the last few years to build new facilities or modernize existing ones — often with borrowed money.
Renovated hotels of note include the Centre Sheraton, Château Champlain, Le Germain and the Queen Elizabeth. Luxury establishments such as Le Mount Stephen and the Four Seasons opened in 2017 and 2019, respectively.
“Montreal may be a great city, but after weeks of confinement, many people want to escape to somewhere quiet,” Paré said. “That’s especially true in the current context, where Montreal is one of the epicentres of the pandemic. The city’s image has been damaged somewhat.”
Business trends are more encouraging in scenic Charlevoix, where wide-open spaces come with relatively low COVID-19 infection rates.
“There’s been a lot of activity in the last few days,” Mitchell Dion, managing director of Tourisme Charlevoix, the regional tourism agency, said in a telephone interview. “Call volumes have been accelerating, and we’ve received a lot of requests for documentation. Panic levels among our members are down significantly.”
Still, summer 2020 will undoubtedly prove challenging for many of Quebec’s hotel owners.
Some relief is on the way. Tourism Minister Caroline Proulx said, June 11, the government would inject about $753 million to help the provincial tourism industry emerge from its slump. Loans and loan guarantees account for much of the package, leaving many operators dissatisfied.