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.
Citing new research from MMGY Travel shows that small group touring is the most appealing travel style for 55% of travellers, Globus is shining a spotlight on its expansion of Small Group Discovery tours, which reflect travellers’ growing appetite for experiences that feel more personal, flexible and immersive.
This week: Canadians agents were treated to a Transat FAM to Rio; ACTA and Los Cabos announce an upcoming Destination Learning Experience; Ensemble has a new Make A Wish partner; Collette updates its learning platform, the Jamaica Tourist Board raises the curtain on a cinematic incentive, and Rocky Mountaineer and Trafalgar offer agent rates.
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines celebrated the 40th anniversary of its service connecting Vancouver International Airport (YVR) and Amsterdam Schiphol (AMS) on April 2.
Newfoundlanders were having a chuckle on Monday over international media reports saying passengers on a British Airways flight diverted to St. John’s last week were stranded on a frozen island somewhere in Canada.
WestJet says it will be introducing a temporary $60 surcharge for certain bookings and has consolidated numerous flights due to skyrocketing fuel prices. The moves come as some U.S. carriers have also announced higher checked baggage fees to cover the increasing fuel costs.
Air Canada will fly to several new destinations for the Winter 2026-27 season, including the only non-stop flights from North America to Tenerife in the Canary Islands (beginning Oct. 25 and 31 respectively from Toronto and Montreal). The flights will operate seasonally.
By ROBIN LAWTHER/ Soccer isn’t just a game – it’s a global movement that mobilizes millions and reshapes travel patterns every four years. In 2026, the world’s biggest soccer event will make history: 48 teams, 16 cities, and three countries – the United States, Canada, and Mexico – hosting an event that transcends the sport and becomes a cultural phenomenon.
Brand USA has announced the appointment of Marion Certain as Trade Manager for Canada, notably filling a position that had been vacant since the death last May of Casey Canevari.
Thirty passengers were evacuated from a cruise ship that ran aground on a reef in Fiji, the ship’s owner said Monday. The MV Fiji Princess, operated by Blue Lagoon Cruises, ran aground Saturday near Monuriki Island, scene of the 2000 movie starring Tom Hanks “Cast Away,” the Fiji-based tourism company said in a statement.
The Cayman Islands welcomed over 49,000 stayover visitors in February, representing a 10.1% increase year over year and marking the second-strongest February on record. Canada led February’s performance and continued its record-setting momentum with double-digit percentage increases in stayover visitation for the fourth consecutive month.
Caribbean tourism continued its expansion in 2025, recording a 2.5% increase in international stay-over arrivals to an estimated 35 million visits, according to the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO). However, a decline in Canadian arrivals tempered the gains.
Russia plans to send a second oil tanker to Cuba, the country’s energy minister said late last week citing the island’s ongoing energy blockade and reiterating Russia’s solidarity with the troubled Caribbean nation. Donald Trump countered with “Cuba’s finished!”
Citing unpaid work as a key issue, the union representing approximately 360 WestJet Encore cabin crew members, has officially served Notice to Bargain a new Collective Agreement.
G Adventures marked the first ‘Jane Goodall Day’ – April 3, on what would have been the late pioneering British primatologist, ethologist, and conservationist’s 92 birthday – with the news that it has renewed its partnership the Jane Goodall Institute of Canada for an additional 10 years.
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.
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.
With over 267,000 islands, Sweden has more islands than any other country on Earth – islands that are defined by calm, rest, clean air and restorative nature, large or small, set in the sea or emerging from a lake. With a rethinking of what luxury means, Sweden is now offering five of them for free to use and care for during a year.
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…
Sunwing Vacations has released its 2026 summer schedule, featuring flight options from key gateways across Canada to a wide range of popular sun destinations across Mexico, the Caribbean and Central America. including Cancun, Puerto Vallarta, Los Cabos, Punta Cana, Montego Bay and more.
Porter Airlines has appointed Carlo Rinaldi as Director, Quebec Market Development, to lead the company’s commercial presence in the province. Based in Montreal, Rinaldi will drive Porter’s market development strategy, with a focus on growing corporate travel, expanding agency partnerships, and deepening engagement across the travel trade and corporate sectors.
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.
Air Canada chief executive Michael Rousseau will leave the company later this year after coming under fire last week for his failure to deliver a video condolence message in French following a plane crash that killed two Air Canada Express pilots.
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.
Following the recent storms that brought flooding to parts of the Hawai’i, the historic town of Haleʻiwa, is moving forward as shops and restaurants reopen – and visitors are being welcomed back, says state tourism officials.
Alberta says it is aiming to be an “iconic” leader in indigenous tourism by helping support and build a vibrant sector and promoting the province as a destination for both Canadians and international visitors.
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%.