You and your out-of-town buddies in all probability see Montreal in another way: research

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There’s a giant disconnect between how out-of-town Quebecers view downtown Montreal and the way their out-of-province friends expertise it.

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That’s one of many essential conclusions of a brand new Léger ballot launched Thursday by the Montréal Centre-Ville retailers affiliation. Whereas the survey produced some very beneficial scores for the central enterprise district, together with a 100-per-cent satisfaction ranking from out-of-province guests, it additionally confirmed widespread dissatisfaction from out-of-town Quebecers on such subjects as cleanliness and safety.

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“All worldwide guests give extraordinarily optimistic scores,” mentioned Christian Bourque, an govt vice-president at Léger. “Those that have the least beneficial opinion of downtown are primarily folks 55 and over who stay exterior Montreal. Those that give the worst scores are folks from Quebec Metropolis. We see the identical phenomenon in every single place. In Ontario, everybody who lives exterior Toronto dislikes Toronto. In France, non-Parisians don’t like Paris.”

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“It’s notion versus actuality,” added Glenn Castanheira, head of Montreal Centre-Ville. “There’s an enormous hole between somebody who’s at house and somebody who’s downtown. Our conclusion is that to attempt downtown is to undertake it.”

Léger interviewed 1,021 downtown guests face-to-face for the survey and adopted up with an internet ballot of 1,404 grownup Quebecers. The interviews happened between the top of August and the top of September, on the tail finish of the 2022 summer season vacationer season.

Guests are overwhelmingly happy with their keep within the downtown Montreal space, the survey discovered. Scores ranged from 100 per cent for out-of-province vacationers to 94 per cent for college kids, 93 per cent for residents, 92 per cent for native vacationers and 91 per cent for staff.

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Montreal’s attractiveness rests totally on its leisure, tradition, providers and eating places, the survey discovered. Forty-one per cent of Quebec-based respondents cited the downtown core’s ambiance as a power, whereas 29 per cent talked about cultural actions and free occasions. Half of out-of-province guests, in the meantime, recognized Montreal’s various gastronomic choices as the principle power.

“With the arrival of e-commerce, there’s nothing actually unique about procuring downtown anymore, apart from the ambiance,” mentioned Jacques Nantel, professor emeritus of promoting on the HEC Montréal enterprise college.

Most guests discover downtown typically accessible — so long as they’re not motorists. Eighty-five per cent of respondents mentioned downtown is definitely reached by public transit, whereas 83 per cent mentioned getting round downtown is nice and protected, the survey discovered. Solely 36 per cent deemed driving within the space to be simple.

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“Persons are typically happy with public transit,” Castanheira mentioned. “If we wish to be sure that downtown stays accessible, we’re going to wish to keep up investments in public transit.”

On the flip facet, two-thirds of non-Quebecers cite extreme prices as downtown’s essential difficulty. One other 46 per cent carry up homelessness, whereas 40 per cent point out total cleanliness. Homelessness, cited by 31 per cent of respondents, ranks because the No. 1 disadvantage for Quebec guests, forward of cleanliness, at 28 per cent, and extreme prices, at 22 per cent.

“Downtown has all the time been welcoming for everybody, together with marginalized populations,” Castanheira mentioned. “That’s why we have now group centres that take care of the inhabitants. Nobody is chased away. However we’re seeing a serious transformation in Montreal, and in every single place in Canada, with the opioid disaster. We now have a evident drawback. We aren’t going to push back the unhoused. We glance after them, however we have to study to raised cohabit with marginalized populations downtown earlier than we lose management. That is what’s taking place proper now in Vancouver, in Toronto, in Edmonton.”

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Till the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, greater than 300,000 folks labored downtown each enterprise day. The world, which is house to about 130,000 college students and 100,000 residents, may also depend on a gradual stream of vacationers. Montreal drew an estimated 8 million out-of-town guests final 12 months, down from about 11 million in 2019.

After taking a tumble within the early months of the pandemic, enterprise exercise has roared again. Foot visitors on Ste-Catherine St. W. between St-Urbain and Atwater Sts. is up 54 per cent this month in contrast with the year-ago interval, Castanheira mentioned. Beneficial climate — reminiscent of final week’s warmer-than-normal days — has undoubtedly boosted customer numbers, he acknowledged.

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