News

News nuggets, airlines, hotels/resorts, cruising, tours, events, FAMS/incentives, deals, destinations and more are covered in our weekly round-up of travel industry news you may have missed.

Despite the current challenges in the Middle East that are further disrupting both global and regional travel and costing the travel industry hundreds of millions of dollars daily, The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) says research of previous crises shows that tourism demand following security-related incidents, with the right response, can recover in as little as two months when governments and industry act quickly to restore traveller confidence. 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill Monday allowing Palm Beach International Airport to be renamed the President Donald J. Trump International Airport. The change is set to take place in July, formally rebranding the airport near Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.

This week: ACTA opens applications for its annual cruise summit, plus a new education experience in Iceland; TTAND savours Celebrity Cruises awards; Nexion launches its inaugural CANex conference; First in Service Travel marks a milestone; and agents could win a spot on a FAM to Bermuda…

After weeks of chaos in U.S. airports, the Transportation Safety Administration said the first paychecks in weeks were being sent as early as Monday to its workers, giving the beleaguered aviation system a boost of optimism. As a result, wait times at some TSA security bottlenecks, such as the airport checkpoints in Atlanta and Houston, improved significantly Monday morning.

On “Zero Waste Day” Monday, global tourism leaders pledged to tackle a major global sustainability challenge: food waste. Launched today by the United Nations Environment Program and UN Tourism, the groundbreaking “Recipe of Change” initiative will see major tourism stakeholders measure food waste in their operations and implement operational and behavioural solutions to halve food waste by 2030.

WestJet Vacations’ 2026 newly released summer program features flight and packages options from key gateways across Canada to a wide range of popular sun destinations across Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central America, including such hotspots as Cancun, Puerto Vallarta, Los Cabos, Punta Cana, Puerto Plata, and Montego Bay.

Effective March 31, most fees for Canadian passports and travel document services will increase as the government begins tying prices to the consumer price index (CPI). As such the cost of a Canadian passport will rise by 2.7%.

U.S. Transportation Security Administration officers could get their first full paychecks in more than six weeks as early as today (Monday) after President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday instructing the Homeland Security secretary to pay them immediately.

A sightseeing company’s helicopter crashed near a remote beach off the coast of the Hawaiian island of Kauai, killing three people and injuring two others, authorities said. It was the latest in a series of fatal crashes that has plagued the industry for decades.

Sunwing Vacations’ Partner of the Month, Viva Resorts by Wyndham, is offering both travel advisors and their clients incentives and exclusive vacation perks at its properties across the Caribbean when booked by March 31.

News nuggets, airlines, hotels/resorts, cruising, tours, events, FAMS/incentives, deals, destinations and more are covered in our weekly round-up of travel industry news you may have missed.

In a social media post Thursday evening, Donald Trump said he would sign an order instructing the Homeland Security secretary to immediately pay Transportation Security Administration agents as Congress struggled to reach a deal to end the budget impasse that has jammed airports and left workers without paychecks.

Niagara-on-the-Lake travellers will soon be able to start an Air Canada trip from their local airport — but instead of boarding a plane, the journey will begin on a bus. Air Canada and the Landline Company have announced that a luxury motorcoach service will connect Niagara District Airport to Toronto Pearson International Airport starting June 15, allowing passengers to book the bus as part of their flight itinerary — similar to a connecting flight.

Airports across the U.S. could close their doors as the government shutdown has brought on the highest security wait times in decades. On Wednesday, the 40th day of the shutdown, TSA acting administrator Ha Nguyen McNeill told the House Homeland Security Committee that the agency is now ‘being forced to consolidate,’ meaning smaller airports would have no choice but to shutter.

Visiting a new country, destination or continent is the top travel resolution for 2026, according to the Global Rescue Winter 2026 Traveller Sentiment and Safety Survey.  That signals a strong appetite for exploration and global mobility despite ongoing uncertainty in the travel environment.