This text is part of the special Business Tourism booklet
To face up to international competition, the Quebec tourism industry must innovate. In order to help industry players meet their innovation needs, the MT Lab has recently offered a new directory of innovative solutions dedicated to the sector, the first of its kind in North America.
“We wondered how to promote innovation in tourism, and what the needs of this industry were,” says Martin Lessard, director of the MT Lab. Our definition of innovation is very pragmatic: for us, it is something that improves a product or an activity, in a sector or in a particular place. If a solution appears in our repertoire, it is because we know that it did not yet exist in Quebec in the field of tourism. The solutions that are part of the directory work, and they are immediately accessible and applicable. »
In 2023, the tourism industry can no longer just open an attraction and wait for visitors to show up. It must understand them, attract them, retain them and meet their ever-increasing expectations, with services adapted to our times.
“Industry needs vary from year to year, but what comes up most often as a request is data management, says Martin Lessard. Companies are always looking for solutions in this area. Those that make onboarding easier are also popular, as are HR solutions, from recruitment to employee retention. This is the number one issue right now. »
But if the tourism industry can innovate in a host of areas, choosing a product or service from the offer on the market is not always easy.
“For a player in the tourism sector, it can be stressful to choose, because he does not necessarily have the knowledge to assess the options available. Our directory allows him to flush out solutions that have been sorted and whose relevance has been previously validated by the MT Lab. »
In addition to having made innovation in tourism a specialty, the MT Lab knows the innovation ecosystem of other Quebec incubators. “We are therefore able to take an innovation that has been developed in another incubator and offer it to the tourism sector,” adds Martin Lessard.
Young innovative companies
The wide variety of solutions included in the directory come from young companies that have been part of past cohorts of the MT Lab since 2017. It includes both cutting-edge technologies and consulting companies.
On the technology side, the directory includes Piecemeal, a management platform for restaurants and food services; Ottomata, which offers an immersive interactive installation without headphones, or Miloguide, a mobile application for travelers facilitating the discovery of local experiences.
In this era of labor shortages and high turnover, one company stands out: Merinio, software that manages calendars, schedules and employee lists, by automating calls, all in complying with union rules. In the tourism sector, the company counts La Ronde among its clients.
On the consulting services side, the proposals are also very varied. For example, Héralys talents et immigrants specializes in implementing diversity within companies. “They provide support in diversity and inclusion and offer a way to understand and attract immigrants to work in tourism in the region,” says Martin Lessard. This is a solution for an organization that has a recruitment problem. In Montreal, we have people from elsewhere who don’t go to work in the regions, who don’t dare. Héralys helps them find their bearings in the regions and explain their needs to employers. »
The MT Lab plans to add more companies to its list, which could number up to 75 by the end of the year. “Since the MT Lab has existed, we have brought 100 young companies into the tourism ecosystem,” says Martin Lessard. It is our role to help them meet potential partners. This is not our first catalog, as at the start of the pandemic we made one to list immediate solutions in the circumstances of COVID-19. Now that the crisis is almost over, this new directory, which is funded by the Ministry of Tourism, is set to be permanent. »
This special content was produced by the Special Publications team of the Duty, pertaining to marketing. The drafting of Duty did not take part.