Despite encouraging signs in 2009 and 2010, Montreal tourism had a poor forecast in 2011 and is looking towards traditional media to promote its conventions and meetings market along with leisure tourism.
The bilingual city of Montreal is prepared to plummet $25 million into promoting itself in order to gain more and more revenue from its tourism industry. The new campaign shall be focused on traditional media, such as the Internet, television and radio, whilst stress has been placed on making sure that optimizing web shift, which started in 2009, continues.
The Canadian city made progress in tourism in 2010 after the recession of the previous year and this year seems to be satisfactory in terms of overnight stays and general tourist spending. The problem is that a poor forecast has been presented for next year. The question has been posed as to whether Montreal, the second largest city in the country, is losing its charm or tourists are simply going elsewhere.
$2 million as a minimum is going towards updating and promoting conventions and meetings tourism in Montreal. However, it is not only the free spending businessmen and their companies who are being targeted as most of the money is, in fact, going towards updating leisure tourism. Even the gay market has been targeted to bring extra revenue.
This is set to be the largest ever tourism promotion campaign in the city’s history, a fact recognizable by the financial constraints it is set to bring. Such a risk, if one can call it that, is being taken because losing out in the tourism market is unthinkable and far more expensive than the campaign itself.