MONTREAL — Montreal’s tourism office says it expects the number of visitors to the city this year to top 10 million for the first time ever.
Tourisme Montreal says numbers increased across the board compared with 2015, including hotel statistics, border crossings into Quebec and arrivals at the airport.
The number of international tourists — from the United States and overseas — entering at Quebec borders climbed 10.7 per cent from January to June compared with the same period a year earlier.
The number of Americans arriving in Quebec by car grew by 10.3 per cent, while those arriving by other means of transport rose by 10.5 per cent. The total number of American tourists rose by 13 per cent in July compared with July 2015.
Tourism from France also surged, with a 21.2 per cent jump in July alone, while the average increase between January and July was 9.6 per cent.
Meanwhile, the total traffic at Montreal’s Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport climbed by 4.9 per cent for the January-May period.
“Montreal is increasingly generating buzz,” Tourisme Montreal president Yves Lalumiere said in a statement.