Social innovation facing sports tourism supply dispersion in Quebec
L’innovation sociale face à la dispersion de l’offre du tourisme sportif à Québec
Résumé
The tourism market, especially sports tourism, in some parts of Quebec territory is characterised both by a strong dispersion of supply and low density of demand. Saying that Quebec is a vast territory is obvious, but this is also a key element of the tourist offer. In this respect, if certain territories are more densely populated, notably Montreal (4015 inhabitants per km2 ) and adjacent areas (Laval, 1728 inhab/km2 ) and Montérégie (136 inhab/km2 ), all the others regions in Quebec are below the limit of 40 inhab/km2 , and sometimes very widely below than 10 inhab/km2 . In such case, the accessibility to the territories is a major issue which affects the number of tourist visiting. In effect, tourism demand (tourists and excursionists) consists of 90% of Quebecers, while international visitors represent less than 5%. Add to that, the climate change impact on the seasonal activities creates new constraints on tourism market. Indeed, despite that the average temperatures are still very low, sudden variations in temperature affect the offer and the seasons’ succession. This new phenomena produce a seasons shifting which is no longer in accordance with the mass departures for holidays.