Katherine Boulianne
6 juin 2024
It was in a packed Saint-Crème on Thursday in Alma that Tourisme Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean invited the various stakeholders in the field to unveil the recent additions to its offering.
Guests were given a sneak peek at the new podcast L'essence du Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean, a four-episode production aimed at giving everyone a feel for the region's soul. The creation, produced in collaboration with the company Balado Boréal , features four characters from the region, each embodying their own season.
"We are more in the meeting, we are getting closer to the visitor. We want there to be less distance, for us not to be just spectators. We are actors in our vacations when we are tourists. We want everyone to feel welcomed, and for people to recognize themselves in that," explains the general director of Tourisme Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, Julie Dubord, about the podcast that will also be available in French-speaking Europe.
Residents and guests of Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean will also be able to show their love for the region, thanks to the appearance of 12 original stickers. Created by artists Oksana Rozhkova and Sophie Kurtness, these small works to stick on are in the image of different landscapes of our region, and will be available in each of the tourist kiosks in the region.
Finally, a new tool combining ecology and technology will allow tourists to offset their carbon footprint during their visit to the region. Available via the Tourisme Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean website, the GHG calculator will count the carbon emitted by the user during their stay. The user will then be able to purchase the number of trees required to offset, via the UQAC Chair in Eco-Consulting.
Although it is still early to predict what the tourist season will look like, the first signs could suggest a busy period for businesses in the region. However, visitor behaviour could confuse the issue. “Before, tourists booked a lot in advance, so I was able to give a sense of the water temperature for this period. In visitor behaviour now, we are more in the “last minute” category. It is difficult to have indicators like we had before, but at the same time for this year, it smells good. And the international clientele is growing. That is a good sign,” says Julie Dubord. The reopening of the Site de la Nouvelle-France, and the wide variety of activities on the territory should attract their share of enthusiasts during the warm season. Each year, the tourism industry generates an average of 300 million in Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean. An article by Katherine Boulianne, Le Quotidien : https://www.lequotidien.com/actualites/2024/06/06/trois-nouveautes-pour-lancer-la-saison-touristique-estivale-MZZOTBL2BRHBTOHVGJ54GVDULM/