AI and Tourism in Quebec: What’s Coming

Think about the last time you planned a trip: you scrolled TripAdvisor, read reviews, checked Google Maps, asked ChatGPT for suggestions. AI is already transforming how we travel. And for Quebec, it’s a golden opportunity.

AI, your personal tour guide

Imagine a visitor arriving in Montreal. Instead of googling “cheap Italian restaurants near me,” they ask an AI: “I want real Quebec-Italian food, I’m allergic to seafood, my budget is $40, and I like places with live music.” The AI doesn’t just give a restaurant list, it creates a personalized itinerary based on their real preferences.

It seems simple, but for the tourism industry, it’s revolutionary. Because it means a small neighborhood restaurant can be discovered as easily as a big chain. It decentralizes tourism.

AI will speak Quebec (soon)

Current AIs don’t talk exactly like us. They give generic, touristy answers you’ve seen a hundred times. But imagine an AI trained on Quebec stories, jokes, accents? One that knows the difference between a Montreal restaurant and one in Gaspésie? That can tell the real story of a neighborhood, not just Wikipedia facts?

That work is happening now. Quebec-specific AI models will transform the tourist experience. More authentic, more local, less generic.

But there are traps

If everyone uses the same AI to plan their trip, we risk uniformity. Everyone goes to the same 10 restaurants, same 10 attractions. That’s the opposite of what we want.

And there’s another problem: small businesses, small inns, local artisans — they don’t know how to get noticed by AIs. We need to develop infrastructure, training, data. Otherwise, only the big players will be visible.

What we could do right now

Invest in a Quebec tourism AI. Train restaurants, hotels, museums to use AI to improve their offering. Create an open database of attractions, events, local stories. And above all, keep control: don’t let Google or ChatGPT define what’s touristic in Quebec. We know better than they do.

That’s exactly the kind of vision we’re developing at Laeka Research — how AI can serve the local economy, not centralize it. To better understand AI’s impact on our communities, check out Sherpa, our platform that gives you the real insights.