Winter 2023: Restaurants and hotels spread in Montreal

Montreal’s restaurant and hotel sectors were able to recover from the pandemic and health restrictions by recording an increase in consumer spending in the winter of 2023, according to a recent report.

Food and beverage saw a 38% jump in spending between February 2022 and 2023, while hotels saw an 87% increase, Munneris found in a study released Monday.

This period corresponds to the end of Igloofest and the beginning of Montreal in Lights, festivals that have seen their big return in person for the first time since the health crisis.

“Covid restrictions were also maintained until mid-March 2022, boosting growth in early 2023,” the report said.

If tourism performed fairly well in the winter of 2023 in the capital, the same does not apply to retail trade, which faced “one of the biggest declines”.

Consequently, purchases of clothing (-20%), in supermarkets (-30%), and second-hand stores (-29%) decreased between May 2022 and 2023.

Conversely, low-cost stores recorded 24% growth over the same period.

“Retail spending rebounded 4% in August, which could be a sign of optimism heading into the holidays,” Moneres noted.