By MICHAEL BAGINSKI/ The Gunter hotel in San Antonio, Texas, wears its musical heritage on its sleeve. So much so that every room in the 116-year-old property (part of the Marriott portfolio since 2018) is furnished with its own turntable and copy of a record album by Robert Johnson, “King of the Delta Blues.”
By MICHAEL BAGINSKI/ Nexion’s first dedicated Canadian conference was a big hit this week – literally – as many of the approximately 125 attendees concluded the two-day event at the Toronto Airport Marriott by busing to the ballpark to see the Jays beat the Red Sox on Tuesday night.
By MICHAEL BAGINSKI/ Air Canada has wrapped up its first season of flying to Guadeloupe from Toronto, but that hasn’t stopped us dreaming about returning when the flights resume next winter. But what we’d really like is to be there right now. Enjoy this photo essay:
By MICHAEL BAGINSKI/ It’s hard to believe that its been almost 20 years since Robert Plant and Alison Krauss first collaborated on the album “Raising Sand” (2007), uniquely pairing the Led Zeppelin icon with the bluegrass goddess icon (Union Station).
By MICHAEL BAGINSKI/ Charlie Watts had a life beyond his day job – keeping time for The Rolling Stones. In fact, the late Watts was a dedicated jazz drummer, who led his own band, The Charlie Watts Quintet.
By MICHAEL BAGINSKI/ More than 70 members of the Canadian travel trade turned out – or up, more accurately – for a Bermuda Tourism Authority event at the top of the CN Tower last week that, fittingly, offered the latest updates on what continues to make the mid-Atlantic island a top travel destination.
By MICHAEL BAGINSKI/ Grenada Tourism Authority director of sales Sekou Stroude was holding forth at an event in chilly Toronto last week when he surmised that many of those in the audience might just be wondering, “Why am I here in this cold?”
By Michael Baginski/ The song is over a decade old, but there’s something that just seems very current about The Record Company’s “Hard Day Coming Down.”
By MICHAEL BAGINSKI/ Virtuoso On Tour Canada events concluded Wednesday in Toronto, with the leading luxury network welcoming member agencies, advisors and preferred partners over two days at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel. The gathering followed a similar event in Vancouver at the Fairmont Pacific Rim March 31-April 1. Together, 180 advisors and 135 partners took part.
By MICHAEL BAGINSKI/ In late March, the Guadeloupe Tourism Committee (GTC) hosted five accomplished travel advisors from Ontario to help them get to know the Caribbean islands intimately and in person – and to share what they learned as the French-Caribbean destination continues to make inroads in English-speaking Canada.
By MICHAEL BAGINSKI/ May will see the return of Antigua and Barbuda Culinary Month, a tourism initiative that continues to grow with a focus on local Antiguan and Barbudan food and chefs alongside guest chefs who are exclusively of Caribbean heritage.
By MICHAEL BAGINSKI/ Start with the name. It’s Guad-el-oup – which is to say, not Guad-a -loup-eh (a city in Mexico). You could call it “the biggest small island in the Caribbean,” as some inhabitants boast, or, better still, just call it Gwada, as the locals do in their creole dialect.
By MICHAEL BAGINSKI/ Last summer I shared my discovery of the year (which held for the rest of the calendar) – a “brand new” 30-year-old band from Scotland I had managed to miss before, prompting an enraged Scottish fellow to point at me at a trade show in Mexico of all places and yell – in full, glorious brogue – “How could ya ha’ missed Primal Scream?”
By MICHAEL BAGINSKI/ With St. Patrick’s Day past, and the appreciation of Irish culture having hit its zenith in mid March, it behooves us to remember that the Emerald’s isle’s musical contributions to the world can’t simply be pigeonholed into ethereal folk songs or and lively jigs and reels (“trad” – traditional – music as it is called).
By MICHAEL BAGINSKI /- Travel Nevada and its partners showed Canadians how to “Get a Little Out There” with a cross-country road show to Toronto, Montreal and Calgary last week, engaging with travel advisors and trade partners, as well as exhibiting at the Calgary Outdoor Adventure & Travel Show.
By MICHAEL BAGINSKI/ With record visitations by Canadians in 2025 and this country accounting for 9.3% of all international visitors to Los Cabos, Canada has become the second-largest international source market for the west coast Mexican destination (after the U.S.), say tourism officials. And with airlift continuing to grow, there is no end in sight.
Lost in the fog of war was the loss late last month of Neil Sedaka, the singer-songwriter whose boyish soprano and bright melodies made him a top act in the early years of rock ‘n’ roll and led to a second run of success in the 1970s with hits that included hits like “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do” and “Laughter in the Rain.” He was 86.
By Michael Baginski/ If you frequent the Internet, you’ll no doubt have come across the new “if such and such was performed by so and so” trend. Pink Floyd as Dire Straits, Perry Como as Metallica, and so forth. Don’t hate me, but I’ve pulled one of these stylistic AI remakes to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day (March 17) this year: Fleetwood Mac if it was an Irish folk song.
By Michael Baginski/ As bombs dropped and drones swarmed in the Middle East/Gulf, the contrast couldn’t have been starker – and more welcome – in Toronto, as G Adventures celebrated diversity, community and happiness – and the tour company’s travel advisor partners.
By Michael Baginski/ Good God, ya’ll, we first ran this song when Russia invaded Ukraine – almost four years ago to the day. That one is still going on. Now we have Iran and its hard not to wonder if a similar tragic trajectory will ensue. Either way, the song remains the same.
A collection of Paul McCartney instruments, outfits, handwritten lyrics, unseen photos and tour memorabilia will be part of an exhibit at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this summer, billed as the first major museum show to feature McCartney and Wings.
By Michael Baginski/ Three million golfers can’t be wrong. That’s how many rounds of golf were played in Myrtle Beach in 2025, prompting Jeff Monday, to observe with a smile: “We play a lot of golf.”
By Michael Baginski/ There wasn’t a foot of snow and bitter cold like at the recent Golf show, but rain, slush and general ookyness in Toronto over the weekend made an equally compelling case for winter-weary visitors to the annual Outdoor Adventure Show to find their inspiration to go somewhere else.
By Michael Baginski/ I’ve certainly never forgotten David Wilcox, but it took a Petro-Canada commercial during the Winter Olympics backed by “Do the Bearcat” to nudge the Canadian treasure back into my current consciousness.
By Michael Baginski/ Few cities embrace the Chinese New Year with the same energy and colour as Hong Kong. It even extends to foreign lands, including Canada, where the Hong Kong Tourism Board celebrated last week with a lengthy list of trade friends atop the Scotia Plaza in Toronto.
By Michael Baginski/ In case you missed it, I regret to inform that 50 years have transpired since 1976 – a fact I myself realized when I read that it’s been half a century since Boston’s classic debut record, but also a year that featured dozens of bands and songs that still resonate today (read on!)
By Michael Baginski/ With the likes of Arizona, Colorado, Miami, and Myrtle Beach in town over the past week, the time was perfect for Brand USA to tag along on its own trade mission to Toronto – an effort designed to help “keep the lights on,” according to the US destination marketing organization.
By Michael Baginski/ Colorado is set to double down on the festivities this year: not only is the Rocky Mountain state celebrating America 250, the country’s 250th anniversary, but the state has its own 150th birthday on the calendar.
By Michael Baginski/ The Arizona Office of Tourism called in Canada this week – an annual reverse migration to Toronto and Vancouver designed to emphasize the state’s long-standing relationship with this country, unperturbed by any other rhetoric that may be emanating across the 49th parallel.
By Michael Baginski/ The salsa dancing inside contrasted with the foot of snow and bitter temperature outside the Lula Lounge in Toronto last week as a small delegation representing Miami tourism reacquainted with close to 80 members of the Canadian travel trade who brave the weather for a colourful evening.