ACTA members sailed with Avalon for a special version of the association’s annual summit; Flight Centre launched a new YouTube series, TRAVELSAVERS is counting new members, and Direct Travel is set for its first leisure conference, all in this week’s round-up.
US federal regulators have told Southwest Airlines that the carrier failed to provide enough help to travellers who were stranded during massive cancellations last December, and the airline could be subject to a fine. Southwest said in a regulatory filing Monday that it can’t estimate the cost of a fine and damages from lawsuits stemming from nearly 17,000 cancelled flights last December.
A Delta Air Lines pilot has been indicted for allegedly threatening to shoot the plane’s captain if the captain diverted the flight because of a passenger who needed medical attention. The man has been charged with interference with a flight crew – a felony offence punishable for 20 years in prison. Delta says the man no longer works for the airline.
Despite his 20-month tenure at WestJet being “quite a roller coaster for sure” through the pandemic and its aftermath, WestJet CEO Alexis von Hoensbroech is enthused about his prospects for the company, for which he boldly proclaims, “We want to be the national leisure champions for Canada from coast to coast.”
Air Canada says the country’s passenger rights overhaul will hardly hurt its bottom line, though the full effect won’t be known until implementation next year. The financial impact of regulatory changes – both rights reforms and stricter rules around pilots’ shift length and rest periods – would put “additive pressure” on costs, the airline’s chief financial officer John Di Bert said,
but added, “certainly those would be incremental to the current cost base.”
Canada’s “garden city” – Victoria, BC – is the setting for this week’s International Garden Tourism Conference, with more than 80 delegates from around the world on hand for the event, which is being held in this country for the first time. Public gardens are among the most frequented attractions for international travellers and were amongst the first to recover from the pandemic.
The iconic Sam Lord’s name has returned to Barbados with the opening of Wyndham Grand Barbados, Sam Lord’s Castle Resort & Spa, built on the former site of a notorious 19th-century pirate enclave. The secluded, ocean-front hotel marks Wyndham Hotels & Resorts’ entrance into Barbados and has begun welcoming its first guests ahead of a formal Grand Opening in early 2024.
Quark Expeditions is challenging travellers to rethink their bucket list and choose destinations that take them beyond standard and overly popular travel experiences. And that, the Polar specialist hopes, includes choosing an Arctic adventure, for which the company has recently releases its 2025 itineraries.
Commercial operations have begun at Cambodia’s newest and biggest airport, designed to serve as an upgraded gateway to the country’s major tourist attraction, the centuries-old Angkor Wat temple complex in the northwestern province of Siem Reap.
The pandemic brought major work culture changes worldwide and a few of those changes are here to stay. Work from home (WFH) or the remote working concept has been around for a while, but the pace has picked up post-pandemic. Today we highlight the best cybersecurity practices for remote workers.
IATA says its just-released 2023 Global Passenger Survey (GPS) related to accessibility of air transport to passengers with disabilities shows “significant satisfaction” levels among passengers who used special assistance services. But if the recent experience of a disabled British Columbia man who was forced to drag himself off an aircraft after arriving in Las Vegas is any indication, the airline industry still has a long way to go to ensuring helpful, compassionate service for all passengers.
Air Canada reported surging profits in its latest quarter as consumers continued to spend on travel, despite higher inflation and interest rates weighing on their wallets. The country’s biggest airline saw net income for its third quarter jump to $1.25 billion from a half-billion-dollar loss in the same period a year earlier.
With more than 12.2 million crossing the border in the first seven months of the year, “Canadian travel to the US is coming back strong,” Brand USA’s Staci Mellman told attendees at the recent 15th annual Discover America Day – Canada media event in Toronto. “Woo hoo!” she added with as much eloquence as the term can allow.
It’s Halloween and perhaps you’re wearing something kooky (or horrifying) at work today (someone we know has taped on dozens of grey paint samples – “50 shades of grey”) or preparing for the night’s trick or treating; but Tourism Ireland is taking the occasion to remind one and all where the horrific holiday all began: Celtic Ireland.
All things Colombia – including the country’s new tourism brand slogan, “The Country of Beauty” – are being celebrated in Montreal at the Colombia-Canada Tourism Forum 2023, organized by ProColombia, the promotion agency of the country, which is part of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Tourism.
Canadian hotelier Germain Hotels has opened its 19th property in Canada: Alt Hotel Calgary University District. The group’s third establishment in Calgary follows the opening of Le Germain Hotel Calgary in 2010 and Alt Hotel Calgary East Village in 2018 and marks the hotel group’s first property inauguration in Canada since 2019.
Hundreds of people on Sunday stormed into the main airport in Russia’s southern Dagestan region and onto the landing field to protest the arrival of an airliner from Tel Aviv, Israel, prompting Russian president Vladimir Putin to call a called a meeting of security and law enforcement officials Monday.
So long, Swoop, it was nice knowin’ ya. WestJet’s “ultra-not-expensive” airline said farewell on Saturday, completing its last day of operations before joining WestJet’s mainline fleet as part of the company’s evolutionary growth plans that now sees it moving on to integrating newly purchased Sunwing Airlines as well.
Air Canada’s inaugural service from Vancouver to Dubai took flight on the weekend linking Western Canada with the Middle East with four-times weekly service aboard Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft.
Travel Leaders Network completed its annual fall Canadian Regional events last week with more than 550 enthusiastic advisors having attended across three cities – Edmonton, Vancouver, and Toronto (West). Dubbed “Peak” (Programs, Education, Advisors and Knowledge), the at-capacity events were a mix of training and business advancement and enhancement sessions, networking with suppliers and peers, and a bustling trade show.
G Adventures and its non-profit partner Planeterra have announced the launch of Project 300, an initiative to help uplift 300 communities through travel by the year 2030. The project builds on previous, successful campaigns: ‘50 in 5’ (2015), through which 50 new social enterprises were built into G Adventures tours in just five years; and ‘Project 100,’ which had a mandate to increase the total number of community tourism enterprises integrated into G Adventures experiences to 100.
India’s high commission in Canada has resumed processing some types of visa applications for Canadians applying from across the country as well as abroad. The decision came a month after New Delhi suspended the services in Canada and for Canadian citizens worldwide.
The airline boss who suggested that women can’t run airlines and called American carriers “crap” and that their passengers were “always being served by grandmothers” is stepping down. Qatar Airways Group chief executive Akbar Al Baker is retiring after 27 years leading the company – a tenure during which he forged a reputation as being one of the most outspoken leaders in the airline industry.
Carnival faced legal troubles in Australia for a cruise operated during the pandemic; Transat announced a flight first (spoiler alert: to Africa); while in other round-up news from last week, Porter launched flights to Las Vegas, Arajet arrived in Canada, and Visit Florida spread some sunshine during its annual mission north of the border.
Speed and convenience are the key priorities of today’s travellers, according to IATA, whose 2023 Global Passenger Survey (GPS) reveals the latest passenger trends and preferences when it comes to both the booking and travelling experience, including increasingly embracing biometrics and off-airport processes to deliver it.
Air Transat will offer non-stop service between Montreal and Marrakech, Morocco, starting next June, making it the only airline in North America to offer non-stop flights to the Moroccan city. It is also the first-ever venture to Africa for the airline and represents what it calls a “strategic shift” in operations.
MSC Cruises says it has cancelled the full winter program of MSC Orchestra that was planned in the Red Sea from Nov. 8 to April 17 because of the proximity of some of ship’s ports of call to Israel and the number of restrictions in the bordering countries that would have adversely affected the holiday experience for passengers.
Never a dull moment this week as the Loch Ness monster did not rear it’s ugly head, but a brown bear in Alaska did become a local celebrity; meanwhile, food and art intersected in truly bizarre ways, and wait for it, an update on the Wienermobile – all in our wonderful, wacky world.
USA Today recently analyzed 23.2 million Google reviews of 500 of the most popular attractions in the world to uncover the biggest tourist traps, the most overpriced, and the most overrated attractions worldwide. Alas, a number of Canadian sites (we’re looking at you Capilano Suspension Bridge!) figured prominently. Read on to find out which ones, as well as the rest of the world’s most notorious sites.
Unless you’ve been living under a tombstone, you’re no doubt familiar with “The Monster Mash,” Halloween’s most quintessential song. It’s been recorded/performed countless times, from the Beach Boys to Van Halen; there are even ska and reggae versions by Bad Manners and Bruce Springsteen respectively. But the definitive – and original – version was by Bobby “Boris” Pickett, which was a graveyard smash, topping the charts in 1962. This is not that song.