City to have a Gastronomy Office
The city is going to have an Office of Gastronomy. It’s a Tourisme Montreal deal, which I suspect will do nothing more than provide a couple of nice jobs for somebody’s friends, but I hope it gives a bit of help to hardworking resto folks, if only to keep up appearances.
Ephraim 18:30 on 2021-08-23 Permalink
Can’t we just buy a lottery ticket instead. Anything related to Tourisme Montreal is a giant waste of money. They aren’t the government, but they collect a tax. They aren’t representing the tourism industry as only about 1/4 of the tourist businesses are members…. they charge extra! They aren’t even in touch with the industry. They are a fiasco.
Kate 18:37 on 2021-08-23 Permalink
Ephraim, I knew you’d bite on this one.
Valérie Plante isn’t a fool, but she plays nice with Tourisme Montreal. In this case, is she just doing it to make it look like she’s giving the nod to something useful, while knowing it’s just meaningless window dressing?
Is there anyone who can sit down with her and explain why T.M. is not helping, and some other arrangement needs to replace it? Would the city even have the power to disenfranchise T.M., and create something new that actually works for the tourism-oriented businesses here?
Ephraim 21:32 on 2021-08-23 Permalink
The city should in fact make it’s own organization and claim the 3.5% tax from the government. Montreal should be in charge of it’s own tourism and in making it vibrant. Tourisme Montreal still pushes Montreal as Paris in North America. As long as they set it up as a not-for-profit that spends all that money on helping tourists have the BEST time here… they will take it home and bring us new tourists.
JaneyB 23:57 on 2021-08-23 Permalink
I think a Night Mayor might be more of a tourism draw. That feels more Montreal to me. Very overdue.
Ephraim 18:36 on 2021-08-24 Permalink
Night mayor sounds interesting.
I can’t wait to see if membership in Tourisme Montreal taints anything that the “Office of Gastronomy” does. It’s like the Maclean’s list… they snubbed Au Pied du Cochon and basically a lot of restaurants asked to be removed from the list and the list… died.