Atin Ito First Filipino Community Newspaper in Ontario
Tourists flocked to the town, about 95 kilometres northeast of Quebec City, for the first long weekend of the season — despite severe flooding a few weeks ago that left submerged basements, washed out roads and a huge cleanup in its wake.
The area bustling with out-of-towners came as a relief for Twist Création owner Marie-Hélène Haché on Sunday.
“It was encouraging to see that yesterday was very busy. It was like a summer day with tourists from Quebec who are recurring and who come back, people from France, people from English Canada,” she said.
After the heavy flooding that ravaged part of the Charlevoix region, the last few weeks have been quieter than usual, according to Tourisme Charlevoix. This sparked concerns about the crucial tourism season that unofficially kicked off this weekend.
“Because of the floods, there has definitely been a slight drop in business,” said Mitchell Dion, general manager of Tourisme Charlevoix. “For the first two weeks of May, there was a decrease of 400 people [compared to] last year.”
However, after this weekend, Dion is optimistic about the tourist season.
His organization is planning to launch a $150,000 ad campaign starting in June to convince would-be tourists to come and stay in Charlevoix this summer.
“We want to send a positive message at the dawn of the summer season that Charlevoix is still there, open and ready to receive people,” Dion said.
“Summer rentals are going very, very well. With this disaster, there were some fears, but afterwards, they faded,” he said, adding his current reservations forecast “an exceptional summer.”
For Joseph Girard, owner of the Diamant Peinture gallery and a Baie-Saint-Paul resident for nearly 50 years, he has no doubt tourists will turn out in droves in the coming months.
“I’m not worried. People have been coming to see us for 150 years. Why stop this year?” he said.
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Credit belongs to : ca.news.yahoo.com
