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Grand Prix weekend is gearing up to be a strong start to Montreal’s summer season, Tourism Montreal CEO Yves Lalumière said Tuesday.

Lalumière presented a report showing an increase in local and international interest in the race and, by extension, an increase in its effect on the Montreal economy. The forecast for the summer tourism season is “strong and positive and very constructive.”

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“Overall, it’s very good news for the city, even better than we expected, and it’s a good sign for the summer,” he said, adding that Grand Prix weekend represents a little over two per cent of all tourism spending in Montreal.

The report, based on the 2023 Grand Prix, shows a 46-per-cent increase in spectators since the last report in 2019. That translates to a 14-per-cent increase in the economic impact of the event from five years ago, representing about $92 million. (The race was not run in 2020 and 2021 because of the COVID pandemic lockdown.)

Lalumière attributed the change to an increase in spectator seats, which went grew to 170,000 from 117,000.

“I think the promoters have done a fantastic job in increasing the space available to accommodate more visitors,” Lalumière said.

There was an increase in visitors from all areas in 2023 over 2019, except those from the United States, among whom there was a 19-per-cent drop. Lalumière attributed the decrease to the arrival of Grand Prix events in the United States.

“But overall, there’s … a good increase in Canada, and a good increase in the international market,” he said.

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Among the rest of Montreal’s Grand Prix spectators, the biggest jump — 102 per cent — occurred among locals who live fewer than 40 kilometres away. About 80,200 attended in 2023, representing nearly half of all spectators. That’s up from about 39,800 in 2019, when locals represented 34 per cent of all spectators.

“It’s good to see that Montrealers have a fever for it,” Lalumière said. Montrealers represent spending of $51 million to the city in terms of the Grand Prix, he said.

The report showed a 53-per-cent increase in spectators from the rest of Canada, 25 per cent from the rest of Quebec and nine per cent among international fans.

“The fact that there are 53,000 more seats available certainly has made a difference in terms of people attending from the international market,” Lalumière said.

As of last week, hotel occupancy in the downtown core is hovering at a little over 95 per cent.

“People arriving on the Thursday and leaving on the Monday tends to happen more than before,” Lalumière said. “It used to be: Come in on Friday or Thursday night, leave on Sunday. But now people are staying more. There are people who have arrived already. The fever is already there.”

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Glenn Castanheira, executive director at SDC Montréal centre-ville, said visitors this year can expect to see Grand Prix installations in new areas.

“We’re seeing the racing teams now doing (installations) in different fan zones inside buildings. So we see one at Cours Mont-Royal. There are cars being (exhibited) at IGA on Robert-Bourassa, which is not somewhere you’d expect an F1 car” to be exhibited, he said. “The same goes for the corner of McGill and Ste-Catherine, where we have Mercedes … headquarters erected there, at the corner of the street, inside the shops.”

Castanheira is reminding Montrealers that there’s more to Grand Prix weekend than just the race and the cars. “The race is happening at Parc Jean Drapeau, but the hype is happening all around downtown.”

The Crescent St. festival is back and will include part of de Maisonneuve Blvd. this year, Castanheira said. The Peel St. festival isn’t returning because of construction, but restaurants and their patios remain open.

Castanheira added that the Grand Prix is so beneficial for local businesses that it allows them to survive the rest of the year.

“It’s literally Christmas in June for a tremendous amount of businesses downtown and outside of downtown,” he said. “We all know just how difficult it is to operate a business. High rent, high taxes, correct, but also the surprise construction sites that affects the sales for months on end, the unexpected protests that translates into sales being lost, the unexpected weather change or consumer habits. All those things have impacts on our businesses being able to survive or not.

“So a successful Grand Prix normally translates into all these businesses being able to withstand the unexpected that makes doing business so difficult the rest of the year.”

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