To a season record for a snowmobile?

Photo Julien Cabana

QMI agency

Tuesday, 2 January 2018 16:45

UPDATE
Tuesday, 2 January 2018 16:47

Look at this article

The recent and heavy falls of snow have enabled retailers to snowmobiles to do business of gold since the beginning of winter in the Mauricie region.

“Up to now, this is indeed a season record”, has launched Mathieu Bourdeau, sales manager at Elitech Sport Evasion of Saint-Étienne-des-Grès, in an interview with TVA News.

His trade is not the only one to benefit from the snow. “It is the case everywhere. In all of our retailers BRP, there is a sales increase of 70% compared to the same time last year”, emphasizes Nicolas Jacques, district manager for BRP (Bombardier recreational Products), which manufactures the famous Ski-Doo.

The last few years have been difficult for snowmobilers. They obviously want to make up for lost time.

Books rental in Maximum Rentals are filled even before the opening of all the trails in the area

“We are already between 300 and 350 reservations of days of snowmobiling. It has 60 snowmobiles. So it remains for us of the place, but it is very, very good up to now. Of course, a few good rains and mild temperatures could change everything quickly,” recalled its director, Jean-François Houle.

The followers of snowmobiles from across Quebec. TVA Nouvelles, met in Saint-Alexis-des-Monts snowmobilers who already had more than 150 kilometres to their counter since the beginning of the day. Party of Saint-Michel-des-Saints in the morning, they intended to stop at the end of the day.

“In a day, it goes here about 1,500 snowmobiles a day,” said Mr. Houle, whose trails to Sainte-Flore-de-Grand-Mother pass close to its trade.

A region known

The Gaspésie, the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean and the Mauricie region are three regions that are recognized for the quality of their snowmobile trails, a sport that is very important for their economy.

“The Europeans have to come here to see the winter and snowmobiling. In us, many hotels do their best figures of the year in the winter. It is not uncommon to see queues of snowmobiles in the course of our restaurants,” said Michel Bourassa, mayor of Saint-Alexis-des-Monts.

The bill for driving can quickly add up. “It takes at least $ 200 per day. There is accommodation, meals and gasoline,” said a snowmobile.

In Quebec, the snowmobile industry has an estimated economic impact of nearly $3.5 billion.