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The Gaspé Region’s First Tourist Guide of the Tourist Association

Cover of the first edition of the tourist guide of the Gaspésie region. In the center of the page is a photograph of a fisherman standing in a fishing boat and a man practicing the sport of windsurfing. In the background Percé Rock looms large.

Tourism guide

The Gaspé Region’s First Office Tourisme Guide, 1986

Association touristique de la Gaspésie

Les Amis des Jardins de Métis Collection

The Association touristique régionale (ATR) de la Gaspésie has been producing a tourism guide every year in French and English-language editions since 1986. Still the most popular and widely circulated, the guide is crucial to visitors to the region and a regular companion of drivers along the 1,000 km Gaspé tour.

The guide offers an itinerary that follows the Route 132 from Ste-Flavie along the north shore of the peninsula and back to Ste-Flavie. Each village is given a brief description and the region’s attractions are described in greater detail. Hoteliers, restaurants and attractions jockey for position among the advertisers, calling out to be noticed by the many readers who pick up the guide every year at one of the tourism information bureaus.

The cover page of the guide book is prime real estate – and most often features the Rocher Percé, the region’s most identifiable attraction – in one guise or another. Since the ATR de la Gaspésie began producing its annual tourism guide, Percé has been featured on its cover on almost every edition  – testifying to the ongoing pull of this emblematic landscape – and its tempting allure to marketers.