The expected wave of tourists arrives in the Gaspé

On the Beach crowds, the heat, and a school year diluted have fuelled a tourist traffic that seemed unimaginable two months ago.

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June 26, 2020

Updated on June 28, 2020 at 15h48

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The expected wave of tourists arrives in the Gaspé

Gilles Gagné

The Sun

CARLETON — two months ago, the tourist industry gaspesian wondered if there would be a “season” in 2020, if it would arrive in the peninsula, only a portion of the 700 000 to 800 000 visitors point usually between may and October.

Since mid-June, the doubts are dispelled. The people in the tourism sector do not yet know whether the wave that will sweep the Gaspésie region will be moderate or strong, but there will be one. The speed of traffic on route 132 is already affected to the downside by the number of vehicles that pass by, sometimes in rows of 10 or 12, including, inevitably camping vehicles of all sizes.

In the hospitality industry, the start was slow, as if the first contingents of visitors, pushed by the heat and a school year diluted, settled down among friends, in spite of the conditions dictated by the pandemic, in families, including their own, in homes or cabins rented, and less often in rooms of hotels or motels.

“In the hospitality industry, it starts here! There are workers also who take rooms, but the tourists arrive. Bookings for the chalets are very popular. People are looking for longer stays,” says Stéphane Boudreau, of the Hostellerie Baie bleue, in Carleton.

Visitors appreciate the space in the Gaspé peninsula, including fishing for striped bass, which provides all the opportunities of distance physical. It is, moreover, that the guard is lowered about the rules to follow.

Special Collaboration, Gilles Gagné

Its complex is divided into three locations close to one another, and it is a total of 105 rooms and suites, and seven chalets and four lofts. Mr. Boudreau will trade its rooms for as many of the cabins this year, but the configuration of its institutions the edge when even. It has invested to cope with certain constraints imposed on its industry.

“Eighty percent of the rooms have an outside access independent. People appreciate this detail. We bought the sprayer to clean the rooms. It allows us to avoid leaving a room empty for 24 hours after the departure of the clients. This is useful when one also has a good customer base of workers in short-stay, as is the case with us. This is why we have invested in there otherwise it would have been extremely difficult to manage the reservations and extensions of stays,” says Mr. Boudreau.

It does not, therefore, a minimum quota of room nights to the rooms, but it promotes, and the customer responds, stays at least a week in the cottages and lofts. “I have just rented two cottages for two weeks each,” he says.

In Percé, Jean-François Gagné, the Peak of the dawn, witnessing the same phenomenon of craze crazy for its cottages. It has 16, as of 16 rooms.

“I went to 23 August in my reservations. Between 5 July and 23 August, I have most of the chalets and what it remains until the beginning of September, inclusive, part quickly. People are so discouraged to find a place in the cottage as they want to a week, and they jump on four days”, said Mr. Gagné.

He has, however, recorded a revenue decline of 70% in may and 50% in June. “There has been no European, it is not complicated,” he said.

Jean-François Gagné leaves the discretion to manage the number of days of accommodation of guests in its rooms. It is ideally at least two days “but if the stay is too long, people are tempted to cook in the room, with a plate. Tries to peel off a garlic smell in a room, then”, he notes.

“I went to 23 August in my reservations. Between 5 July and 23 August, I have most of the chalets and what it remains until the beginning of September, inclusive, part quickly. ”

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Jean-François Gagné, the Peak of the dawn

If Stéphane Boudreau, who has a convention center adjacent to its establishment, and Jean-François Gagné is relieved to see that their summer will be busy, they worry about all the two for September.

“What will happen this fall? Except at the beginning of September, I have a lot of Europeans until the 10th of October, almost 90% of my customers, with the bus. Also, people have adopted telework, and don’t move anymore. Some of the officers of Investissement Québec do not have the right to travel prior to 2021. This winter, we will be a customer of a snowmobile? At least 50% are Americans and Ontarians. If I don’t have seminars, conferences? It is necessary that it resumes. At least, the events of 50 people or less are allowed. I hope that the second wave of a pandemic will not be too important. You can only go sub-zero. It is necessary to begin to live again,” said Mr. Boudreau.

Jean-François Gagné also anticipates problems for September. “It is the month of the Europeans, with the Germans until early October. It is almost as good as July. The French and the Germans have not cancelled, but we wonder if they will come,” he says, far from certain that Quebec will take over from the 10th of September.

Some campsites, like the one of Carleton, are already full such as during the construction holiday. The campsites have been a refuge before the hotel rooms.

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THE GUARD IS LOWERED

Jean-François Gagné, the Peak of the aurora, observed since the arrival of the visitors, a change of attitude, a lack of net caution against the dangers of a new outbreak of COVID-19. It is visible among the tourists and the local population.

“What we have Pierced, that is a lot of world that refuses to see the reality; they deny that we are living a pandemic. A customer came to the service station at 22 h yesterday. The cashier asked him to wash his hands. “I do not wash the hands”. She put it outside (…) Only 5% of my clients wear a mask”, he says.

Hotels and motels fill up with a time lag because many of the tourists opt to start the season for the camping underground, which has been targeted by some municipalities as an element to control, sometimes to prohibit it.

Roxanne Langlois

Mr. Gagné sees a lot of people opt for camping underground around Pierced rather than take a room, considering some of the campsites in the gaspé peninsula open only the sections dedicated to autonomous vehicles on the health plan.

“In June, we see many young people with small budgets. It’s going to change in July and August”, he adds.

Locally, the people of the area Drilled has also declined the guard. “It is very fragile. Public Health interventions must increase. The people are not afraid. No one has had (the COVID-19), and they don’t know of anyone who has died”, concluded Mr. Gagné.

Le Soleil