The top regional tourist destination in Québec (after Montreal and Quebec City, which are not regions but cities), Mont-Tremblant has everything it needs to attract the tourist of tomorrow who will, it seems, be experiencing a “nature deficiency”. Fresh air, unspoiled land, and pure water will be the white sand beaches of tomorrow.

The thing is, however, that the tourist of tomorrow will most often be Asian, and more specifically, Chinese. Whence the importance of getting ready to welcome them properly. The World Tourism Organization estimates that in the years to come, most people travelling for pleasure will come from emerging countries, including China, which in 2015 became the country that spent the most on tourist products.

“We’ll have to adapt,” says Daniel Blier, general manager of Tourisme Mont-Tremblant. “This is a clientele we’re going to see more and more of. China and India alone represent a population basin of more than two billion individuals. The challenge is to know how to address those people. It may be a matter of translating the menu of our restaurant, or of a digital ticket accessed via a QR code. But it’s certain that this is a clientele we’ll be seeing more and more and, in contrast to what we’re used to, they’ll be arriving independently.”

A digital tourist, anxious and predictable

We learn as well that the traveler will be predictable, keen on new technologies and somewhat anxious by nature. At least, that’s the word from Paul Arseneault, holder of the Transat Chair in Tourism at ESG UQA, who was invited by Tourisme Mont-Tremblant to give a presentation on the subject, early in June.

“We have to understand, starting now, that our tourism development will depend on our understanding of what’s happening in Asia, and particularly in China,” explains Paul Arseneault. According to Professor Arseneault, we would be wise to know what tourist product would be take precedence in the land of the Great Wall, and in particular, how to sell it.