Making Tourism a Gateway to Carpooling
Providing access to natural spaces, ski resorts, and tourist destinations without relying on personal vehicles remains a significant challenge in Quebec. For many tourism regions, the challenge is twofold: reducing transportation-related emissions while making attractions more accessible to visitors, particularly those coming from major urban centres.
For Greenplay, tourism also represented a unique opportunity to democratize carpooling. Unlike commuting to work, leisure activities offer a more flexible and social setting, where people are generally more willing to share a ride with others heading to the same destination.
It is within this context that Allons Covoiturage was created, a project developed by Greenplay in collaboration with Tourisme Lanaudière, Tourisme Laurentides, Tourisme Montérégie, Tourisme Cantons-de-l’Est, and the Association des stations de ski du Québec. The objective: create a simple, safe, and user-friendly solution tailored to the realities of Quebec’s tourism industry.
Collaborating to Drive Innovation
The Allons Covoiturage project took shape through an open innovation initiative facilitated by MT Lab. Leveraging its deep understanding of the tourism ecosystem, the organization brought Greenplay together with several partners around a shared vision: making tourist destinations more accessible through carpooling.
Originally, Greenplay’s technology was designed for colleges, universities, and organizations looking to simplify transportation within their communities. Inspired by matching applications, the platform automatically connects drivers and passengers based on their preferences and travel routes.
Unlike traditional carpooling platforms that rely on classified ads and manual exchanges, Allons Covoiturage uses an algorithm that automatically identifies the optimal meeting point between users. This approach simplifies the experience, improves safety by eliminating the need to share personal addresses, and encourages adoption.
“Tourism is an excellent gateway to carpooling. Once people adopt it to go skiing or hiking, they are much more likely to use it in other aspects of their lives,” explains Bertrand Gélinas of the Greenplay team.
“This project perfectly illustrates MT Lab’s role as a catalyst for open innovation within the tourism industry. As a graduate of our Matchmaking Program, Greenplay had developed a promising technology, while several tourism organizations were expressing a growing need for mobility solutions tailored to their realities. Our role was to bring these partners together around a shared vision, facilitate collaboration, and create the conditions necessary for a solution designed specifically for the tourism sector to emerge.
Collaborative innovation projects are among the most complex to bring to life because they require aligning different interests, needs, and timelines. Allons Covoiturage demonstrates that by working together, it is possible to develop high-potential solutions that strengthen destination accessibility, sustainable mobility, and the competitiveness of our tourism regions.”
— Florence Barbeau, Director of Partnerships and Open Innovation, MT Lab
Promising Results on the Ground
Thanks to funding through the EPRTNT Collectif program from Quebec’s Ministry of Tourism and a five-year commitment from its tourism partners, Allons Covoiturage was gradually deployed between December 2025 and March 2026.
The pilot project delivered encouraging results:
- More than 3,500 app downloads
- More than 40 tourism partners engaged
- Approximately 800 ride requests recorded
- Strong adoption among users from the Greater Montreal area travelling to destinations outside the city
Today, the platform enables:
- Automated matching between drivers and passengers;
- Integration directly into tourism websites, event registration forms, or through the mobile app;
- Management and reporting tools for partner organizations;
- Rewards redeemable at participating businesses.
Beyond improving accessibility, the project also helps reduce the number of vehicles on the road while encouraging more sustainable mobility habits. Greenplay also tracks several environmental and social indicators to measure the project's long-term impact.
The initiative was also a finalist for the Prix Leader en mobilité durable, recognizing the value of this collaborative approach between technological innovation and the tourism industry.
An Ambition Beyond Tourism
Building on the success of the pilot project, Greenplay is now expanding into the Quebec City region and collaborating with major events such as the Festival d’été de Québec, the Fêtes de la Nouvelle-France, and the Festival des Montgolfières de Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu.
The ambition is clear: to build a province-wide solution that connects people to tourist destinations, events, and eventually many other aspects of everyday travel.
“Carpooling is not yet second nature in Quebec, especially for tourism and leisure travel. With Allons Covoiturage, our ambition is to catch up with countries where ride-sharing is part of everyday life by removing the barriers that limit adoption. We want to make carpooling a genuine transportation option for Quebecers and help create lasting changes in mobility habits.”
— Bertrand Gélinas, Greenplay
Through the collaboration of Greenplay, MT Lab, and its tourism partners, Allons Covoiturage demonstrates how open innovation can accelerate the adoption of new mobility habits while strengthening the attractiveness of Quebec’s tourism regions.