Saint-Faustin-Lac-Carré, April 21, 2008 − Continental Airlines’ flight of April 5th put an end to the first season of daily direct flights between New York and La Macaza. Laurentian Air Tourism (LAT) administrators, managers of the Guarantee Fund, are all quite satisfied with this first season’s activities.
All the administrators agree that this first season heralds the success of this incredible venture. “This first season has been quite satisfactory. For a first year, with regards to the number of seats sold, we reached the realistic objective of just over 48%. New York’s destination market is quite vast and a huge effort of sensitization and positioning was required; this has been a tremendous effort on the part of all those who were involved.” declared Mr. Paul Calce, administrator of the Board of Directors. “As the bookkeeper, I can safely say that our results are similar to those achieved by other resort destinations in their first years of flight operations” concluded Mr. Calce.
First Market Statistics
One of the first objectives that Laurentian Air Tourism wanted to meet was to extend the length of stay of visitors once at destination. To this effect, the numbers are quite conclusive: this winter, close to 2,200 passengers came to visit this tourist destination, of which close to 68% took lodgings for a stay of three days or more. This data is particularly interesting when compared with the current average stay of 2.7 days in the Laurentian region.
Furthermore, the flight program was instrumental in developing a new niche of customers as 43% of all visitors were in the region for three to four nights. The short length of stay was justified by a trip of less than 90 minutes from New York. Without the air connection, this new niche clientele would not even have considered this destination. It is interesting to note that more than half of the visitors, to wit 55%, were couples or individuals.
Another point worth mentioning: during the inaugural flight last December, more than a dozen American journalists came to the region, on the wings of Continental Airlines, to discover this tourist destination. The expected results of this familiarization tour, organized by Laurentian Air Tourism and Tourisme Québec, along with the media coverage that ensued from this tour, augur well for the seasons to come. The second season of aerial flights shall begin in December 2008.
In parallel, on the Ontario market, this business model prompted Porter Airlines to confirm their connection between La Macaza International Airport and downtown Toronto and this, from December until April, at the rate of three flights a week. This program was also quite successful and, according to Mont-Tremblant Resort, the frequency of these flights will be maintained for the next winter season.
Laurentian Air Tourism is an economic consortium regrouping various private and public Laurentian organizations that put together a Guarantee Fund for the purpose of developing targeted destination markets at La Macaza International Airport. LAT’s financial partners, such as the Town of Mont-Tremblant, the Mont-Tremblant Resort, the Tremblant Resort Association (TRA), the Laurentian and Antoine-Labelle Local Development Centres (CLDs), the Laurentian and Antoine-Labelle SADCs, the “Ministère du développement économique, Innovation et Exportation” (MDEIE) and Canada Economic Development (CED), have reiterated that they were quite pleased to have been able to bring their financial support to the implementation of this first season.
For more information on Laurentian Air Tourism, visit the www.flytremblant.com website.
-30-
Source:
Nadine Forest
Executive Secretary
Laurentian Air Tourism
819-681-3373, ext. 1407
nforest@cldlaurentides.org |
