OLD PORT OPENING UP FOR FUN
Most activities restarting tomorrow
The amount of people visiting the Old Port is down a lot so far this year, but folks running the site are hoping visits will pick up with the arrival of warmer weather and the loosening of restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Most of the activities at the Old Port will be restarting on Saturday, including the Voiles en Voiles family theme park, the renting of quadricycles and pedal boats, and the arrival of food trucks on a daily basis. Some food trucks had already been operating on weekends.
The Bota Bota spa, located on a boat in the Old Port, will be opening Monday for some activities, including massages, but its water circuits will not be allowed to operate.
On Monday, restaurants at the Old Port will be opening, including Marché des Éclusiers, Terrasses Bonsecours, La Scena and Café Van Houtte.
The government has given the go-ahead for restaurants across Quebec to open Monday.
“It’s obviously been a big challenge,” said Jean-philippe Rochette, public relations manager for the Old Port.
“Everybody in the tourism industry has been hit really hard with what’s been going on over the last few months. But the fact that we can be open as of this weekend, for us we see the light at the end of the tunnel and we just hope now that people will come and visit us and encourage local tourism. We’re hoping the summer season is going to be good for us.”
The Old Port has taken a big financial hit because of the pandemic. It has had to reduce its rent for many of the tenants, with some not paying at all so far.
Rochette said only 20 per cent of the Old Port visitors are out-ofprovince tourists.
“Despite what people might think, we’re very much a destination for Quebecers,” said Rochette.
Last weekend, Old Montreal was sparsely populated.
There are virtually no tourists in Montreal right now because of COVID -19.
The Old Port receives around seven million visitors annually, though it will be much less this year.
“May is usually a very good month for us,” said Rochette. “We have a lot of events (normally), but that didn’t happen so we had less people in the Old Port.”
The other issue the Old Port has to deal with this year is that all the big events that take place there have been cancelled because the Quebec government decreed that there would be no major sporting or cultural events before Aug. 31.
The Cirque du Soleil show, which was meant to run for two months in the Big Top in the Old Port, was cancelled, as was the annual Poutinefest.
The July 1 Canada Day festivities were also nixed, an event that attracted 140,000 people last year.
Certain activities are still not allowed this year. You still can’t ride on La Grande Roue or the giant observation wheel, nor can you explore SOS Labyrinthe.
Also, the science centre remains closed. Other museums have reopened, but not the science centre because it’s so interactive, according to Rochette.