Tourisme Montreal and its industry members kicked off the summer tourist season at its spring tourism fair. The organization is predicting that this summer will be a strong season as many conditions within the area are favorable to visitors, including the exchange rate for U.S. visitors.
The Conference Board of Canada expects the volume of tourists to grow by 2.9 percent overall in 2016 and by 5.7 percent in 2017. This year, the number of international visitors to Quebec has already increased by 13.6 percent.
"Tourism is one of the major industries expected to continue growing in Québec through to 2020. The promising forecasts for 2016 and the excitement building around the city's 375th anniversary are winning conditions to make Montréal a leading international tourist destination," said Yves Lalumière, president and CEO of Tourisme Montréal.
A new hotel and the opening of new attractions will help Montreal stand out as a tourist destination.
The innovative new William Gray boutique hotel is scheduled to open in Old Montreal in the summer. The property is located on St-Vincent, just steps away from Place JacquesCartier and the Old Port. The hotel will offer 127 guestrooms and suites, more than 10,000 square feet of event space, a 180-seat restaurant, a rooftop terrace, a luxury spa with an outdoor pool, a boutique, a café and exquisite views of Montreal's iconic landmarks.
Beginning in May, the Cite Memoire project will take visitors on a journey through Montreal's history through a series of tableaux and a downloadable app from the App Storea and Google Play which lead them on a technologically enhanced route through Old Montreal.
Also coming this summer is the Au Sommet Place Ville Marie, a unique downtown observation space that offers visitors extraordinary views of Montreal and an interactive path on which to discover the city's customs and a culinary experience.
Montreal's museums will be offering a variety of new exhibits. The Montréal Museum of Fine Arts will feature the exhibition "Toulouse-Lautrec," which illustrates the Belle Époque, The museum will also open a new Pavilion for Peace that features several works from the Michal et Renata Hornstein collection.
The Musée d'Art Contemporain will feature works by Edmund Allen, and the McCord Museum will host the Canadian premiere of "Eleganza: Italian Fashion from 1945 to Today."
Pointe-à-Callière Museum will present the exhibit "Fragments of Humanity - Archaeology of Québec" through January of next year.
Montreal will also be hosting several major sporting and business travel events that are predicted to draw large crowds. The World Social Forum 2016 and the International Economic Forum of the Americas are forecast to draw some 100,000 delegates to the city this summer.
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