The MT Lab, the first tourist innovation incubator in North America, recently celebrated its 10th anniversary. Created by UQAM and Tourisme Montreal, this accelerator of tourist innovations was born out of a common desire: to bring forth solutions to the industry’s challenges through open innovation. Its general manager, Martin Lessard, answers our questions.
Published yesterday at 14:00
Author: Mia Bellemare, Special Collaboration
What is the mission of the MT Lab? It is an incubator-accelerator dedicated to tourism. Our team supports innovative companies seeking to break into this field, while helping industry players better meet their needs.
In the mid-2010s, startups were on the rise, and innovation ecosystems were structuring, but tourism remained on the sidelines. The goal was to carve out a place in this universe.
How does your team intervene in practice? We mostly intervene when a company is looking to enter the market and grow there. Often, they already have a good idea, sometimes even a solution, but they don’t know how to reach the right industry players yet.
Targeted meetings and networking activities are then set up, such as “reverse pitches,” where tourism actors present their challenges, needs, and blind spots. Between 50 and 80 companies now gravitate around MT Lab each year.
What kind of companies come to see you? These are often companies that already have a solution, without yet realizing it can be applied to the tourism sector.
We’ve seen this in connectivity issues raised by the City of Montreal in underground paths and by SEPAQ in outdoor areas where the network is weak. Taken separately, these needs may seem different. By bringing them together, we understand they all point to the same issue: access to information in the tourist journey.
In your opinion, how has the tourism industry evolved in the past decade? Tourism is an umbrella term, encompassing hospitality, dining, transportation, and museums. Together, these sub-sectors weigh heavily in Quebec’s economy and form one of its major export industries, generating billions of dollars annually.
What pleased me is that we are increasingly understanding the nuances. We talk more about sustainable mobility, regenerative innovation, or artificial intelligence applied to operations. This is a sign of a sector gaining maturity.
Do you offer financing? Yes. We manage diversified funds that allow us to support a variety of projects, striking a balance between public and private funding. A young company can also participate in our activities and start building links with the ecosystem, free of charge.
What are your challenges for the coming years? Our first challenge: specialization. The question is no longer just about growing but going deeper. There are bridges to be built between tourism, health, mining, mobility, and several other sectors.
Our second big challenge: visibility. Ten years ago, most examples of tourist innovation came from France. Now it’s Quebec that is being cited. We feel we have found our place in the Francophonie. The next step may be to explore more in the English-speaking side.
