Eric Hamill from the Greater Montreal Hotels Association said: "Tourists used to come to engage in winter activities such as skiing or ice skating, usually staying for a day or two in Montreal." "Currently, things are not going well in Montreal, however, the association hopes for a recovery during the spring and summer seasons and expects similar numbers to last year, when hotel bookings finally returned to pre-pandemic levels.

He pointed out that the loss of the 'Just for Laughs' festival will have an impact on tourism – and the concern is that the economic conditions that led to its downfall could also affect more than 100 other festivals the city hosts every summer.

Hamill said the biggest decline this winter was among weekend travelers.

Hamill said: "The fact that people have less money in their pockets, perhaps spending some time in a hotel is not a priority."

He confirmed that currently, we can see that weekends that used to be busy are no longer busy now."