The Gaspé peninsula is a place of escape par excellence.
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July 17, 2020
Updated on July 18, 2020 to 6h19
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Tourism: almost complete in Gaspésie
Gilles Gagné
The Sun
CARLETON — two months ago, just before the opening of the regions, the Gaspesians were wondering if there would be a tourist season. A month ago, it was obvious that she was started, and since the beginning of July, some hotels show increases of income compared to the exceptional year 2019, before the start of the construction holiday.
In fact, on the street and in the supermarkets, people wonder what will happen to the construction workers, their families and the people who choose the same period to take their vacation.
This is particularly the case of Stéphane Boudreau, co-owner of the Hostellerie Baie bleue, Carleton, who observes “an increase of 15 % of the hosting revenue for the first half of July compared to 2019, which had been an excellent year,” he said with relief.
In mid-June, it saw bookings come in for July, but at a moderate pace. It was especially a decrease in hosting revenue of 60 % for June due to the lack of business tourism for the convention center juxtaposed to the hotel of 109 rooms, of which one must add seven cabins and a campground for people self-reliant.
“We are virtually full until 20 August. We still have a month to fill in August. The release came in time to Saint-Jean-Baptiste.
“We sold it for almost the rest of the summer. The stays are really long. The people reserve for three -, five -, seven days. We did not see it before. It is almost the norm this year. It is a lot simpler for the logistics,” says Mr. Boudreau.
This is logistics, it is the staff required to clean the rooms, a barrier when customers are changing every day. “The PCU and the PCUE [providing canadian emergency and its equivalent students] are really bad because there is no incentive to return to work,” he says.
The vacation of the construction will therefore have no effect on its income and accommodation, but they could improve those of the dining room.
“In the Gaspé peninsula, is not bad the only ones in Quebec to be familiar with this kind of season. It is the big winners of the tourist season. People have really opted for the Gaspé peninsula. I see a lot of positive. People who had not come for 30 years to arrive, and they are surprised. It turned, with the restaurants, micro-breweries and attractions,” adds the hotelier.
The next project of Stéphane Boudreau and colleagues, it is to take advantage of the fall, since the customer european and american will not be there. “I am preparing an offensive for September-October, with good prices,” he said.
This influx, however, has an effect controversial, the amount arresting of people who opt for wild camping, especially on beaches. Many public toilets are being closed because of the pandemic and the burden of their systematic cleaning, human waste and the accumulation of waste along some of the most beautiful beaches pose a problem.
At Douglastown, a district of Gaspé, a resident, Chelsea Flowers, has stopped his visits to the beach with his young son. “He almost cut himself with broken glass, and we have seen human feces with toilet paper. We didn’t go back.”
The Town of Gaspé has taken some measures Wednesday with the Sûreté du Québec and certain québec government departments, one being the ban on parking near the beach of Douglastown. Mayor Daniel Côté, however, believes that the solution involves “consistency in regulations from one municipality to another, for the whole of the Gaspé peninsula. If the rules change when moving from one municipality to the neighbouring municipality, it will be unmanageable”.
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