Bruce Hodge is surely one of the most interesting men in the world, so it was only fitting that lightning flashed and thunder clapped during his remarks as the inimitable founder of Goway Travel celebrated his 80th birthday at his North Toronto home late last week.
Few singer-songwriters have been so good for so long as Bruce Springsteen. Indeed, it’s a sad, if understandable fact that many, while continuing to play, must rely on their previous glory days as new music diminishes – at least in terms of quality. Not so the Boss, whose output beyond the ‘70s and ‘80s has been every bit as engaging.
Chris Thompson is goin’ fishin’. But colleagues and well-wishers will have until May 31, 2024 – after IPW in Los Angeles – to say goodbye to the popular Brand USA exec, who announced his retirement yesterday.
Collective Soul is touring this summer (new album), including multiple dates across Canada. I caught the band in Kitchener, Ont. a couple of weeks back, at last crossing one of my all-time faves off my concert bucket list.
As ACTA tackles the industry-wide labour shortage, amongst several issues that are currently bedeviling retail travel in this country, ACTA’s president says the issue comes as no surprise.
Though it is universally agreed that business is booming, the Canadian travel industry certainly still has its share of woes at the moment – though for one shining day in Milton, Ont., the rain clouds parted and the sun beamed down for close to 200 enthusiastic participants in ACTA’s 34th annual summer golf tournament.
In honour of Canada Day earlier this month, Rolling Stone magazine rolled out its occasional accounting of “best” Canadian artists, encompassing familiar names like Neil Young, Gordon Lightfoot, Rush, Shania, Celine, Drake, and Justin (Bieber, that is). Plus, some absolute head-scratchers: Snow, (disco-punk revivalists) Death From Above 1979, and Japandroids.
With temperatures feeling like 40-plus degrees across large parts of Ontario and Quebec this week, and the world at large posting its highest daily temperature ever, it was definitely getting dirty and gritty in the cities. So, envy to those on holiday, or working (sure!) on the dock at the cottage – or better still, legitimately sipping a cocktail there, toes dangling in the cool water. Sigh.
It was simply time for the Golden Gate City to start playing ball again in Canada – literally, as a delegation from the San Francisco Tourism Association invited a select group of travel friends to attend a Blue Jays game against their own Giants at the Rogers Centre last week.
Vancouver is certainly known for its bridges, but the one we’re most enamoured of is Bridges restaurant and patio, found on Granville Island, overlooking fabulous False Creek, the city skyline, and the mountains of the north shore.
As we get set to turn the volume to 11 on Canada Day, it’s only fitting that we offer a little classic Canadiana for your listening/viewing pleasure. And who can forget the Calgary-based trio The Stampeders – perhaps the only band that could use the word macaroons in a song and get away with it?
A place where “cowboy boots and hats come together,” Fort Worth exudes a real Texas vibe, yet with a “modern west” ambiance befitting America’s 12th largest city.
Mention Matchbox 20 and the band is usually greeted with an “Oh, I love them.” It is entirely fair to say they are beloved, not least thanks to charismatic frontman Rob Thomas and not just by women (my wife included). A few years ago, Thomas, performing solo, blew the audience away at the annual IPW U.S. travel trade show.
There’s no place like Wytheville. Literally. Unlike Washington or ubiquitous Springfield (notably home of everyman family the Simpsons), the southwest Virginia town is the only place in the US with that name (and the entire world, they claim).
Launching ‘Little Tennessee’ at The Drake Hotel Toronto are (l-r) Charmaine Singh, Reach Global; state tourist development commissioner Mark Ezell; singer-songwriters Eric Arjes and Jimmy Robbins; Deana Ivy, president of Nashville Convention and Visitors Corp.; and state tourism assistant commissioner of marketing Debra Smith.
Blake Shelton isn’t from Tennessee, but with a nod to the state’s unique music-oriented promotional event in Toronto this week (see story above), we’ll feature a song co-written by talented Nashville songwriter Jimmy Robbins, who performed for media at the ‘Little Tennessee’ launch Wednesday at The Drake Hotel.
Canadians’ love affair with Los Cabos is continuing as arrivals to the Mexican tourism hotspot have increased close to 13% in the first half of the year – and that’s having already reached pre-pandemic figures over the winter.
With Air Canada flying three times weekly to Saint Lucia this summer, there’s no time like the present for Canadians to take advantage of the amenities of the island’s sibling resorts, Coconut Bay Beach Resort and Spa and Serenity, travel agents were told at a Toronto event Friday.
With a nod to today’s lead story, we had a hankerin’ for a little Hendrix this week, and specifically the guitar god’s classic “Purple Haze.”
It’s the most iconic landmark in Texas, but for many, initial impressions prompt the question: “Is that it?” After all, the historic site – famed site of the Battle of The Alamo in 1836, where Davy Crockett and others lost their lives fighting in the Texas Revolution – is squeezed into a downtown square in San Antonio that lacks the epic scale of most other national moments in the US.
Canada has regained its position as Florida’s top international market – status it officially but briefly lost (to Colombia) during the pandemic. But when borders re-opened, this country quickly regained its typically unassailable position atop Visit Florida’s visitor logs.
A trip down nostalgia road this week with the Sweet classic, “Ballroom Blitz.” For me it takes me back to CHUM sock hops in junior high (which always ended, I might add, with the conflicting slow dance nervousness/elation of “Stairway to Heaven.”)
After three years of construction and a cost of $300 million, the reimagined Nassau Cruise Port has opened its doors to cruisers, not only offering enhanced service for cruises to the Bahamas’ capital city, but ushering in a regeneration of the city’s downtown core.
Calling the recent move by some US civil rights groups to issue a “travel advisory” for visitors to Florida a “stunt,” members of the state’s tourism trade are taking exception to the claim that the destination is “openly hostile toward African Americans, people of colour, and LGBTQ+ individuals.”
On a day when a toddler was shot in the head by a stray bullet while playing outside at daycare in Utah – just another day in the life of a country where gun violence has claimed nearly 17,000 lives in the first half of 2023 alone – the US Travel Association gamely tackled the issue of gun violence in America at last week’s IPW travel trade event in San Antonio.
Declaring the pandemic now endemic, Brand USA, the nation’s destination marketing organization, opened IPW 2023 last week showcasing the country as an unrivalled travel destination that is poised for a historic year in travel.
From a boat-float parade along its famous River Walk to a closing night gala at The Alamo, delegates will long remember this year’s IPW in San Antonio as US travel officially emerged from the pandemic.
Four years after buying a bust for $34.99 at a goodwill store in Austin, Texas, Laura Young said goodbye this week to a friend as the priceless 2,000-year-old Roman artifact headed home to Europe.
Last week we looked at a host of SoCal destinations – some familiar, some less so – whose delegates attended the recent visit California sales mission in Niagara on the Lake, having put the insiders on the spot to tell us one thing they wished a Canadian knew about their region. Here’s Part 2, covering the middle and northern parts of the Golden State (starting north of Los Angeles).
Canadian travel agents are helping the Caribbean reach record levels of tourism this year – boosted by a whopping 132% increase in bookings by travellers using retail travel agents – far ahead of the international norm.