Let’s put it this way: if Waterside restaurant on Crystal Symphony was ashore, you wouldn’t be able to get a reservation even weeks in advance. Seriously. It’s that good. The menus are so varied, the presentations so outstanding and the service so impeccable that it would be a hands-down choice for a memorable splurge dinner anywhere on land or sea. And Crystal’s gourmet restaurants are complimentary.
Great concerts can become the stuff of legend, but those performances rarely make great records – usually unable to truly capture an electric live atmosphere, convey sound quality comparable to a studio setting, or, of course, present the artists’ visual hijinks. As such, it’s even rarer then when a band makes its breakthrough because of a live album.
As southern Ontario rung out the towels from torrential rainfall and flooding, across the world in Athens, the Acropolis – Greece’s biggest cultural attraction – faced a different sort of tumult, closing for several hours in the middle of the day Wednesday, amidst an extreme heat wave in southern Europe that has sent temperatures spiralling.
Airfares rose two percent year-over-year in June – and continue to soar above pre-pandemic levels. Figures from Statistic Canada’s consumer price index show the increase follows a 4.5% year-over-year bump in May and a fairly flat April. Prices also stood nearly 19% above what travellers paid for their plane tickets in June 2019.
Sabre and Air Canada have announced the launch of Air Canada’s full content via new distribution capability (NDC) in Sabre’s travel marketplace. This launch allows travel agencies to consume Air Canada’s expanded NDC offers and services, enabling them to provide a more personalized travel experience to the customers they serve, the companies say.
Air Transat will launch two non-stop seasonal routes to Tulum, Mexico, from Montreal and Quebec City starting in December. Tulum joins four other destinations in Mexico served by Air Transat: Acapulco, Cancún, Cozumel and Puerto Vallarta.
In this week’s retail round-up, The Travel Agent Next Door was honoured by Sandals; Travel Leaders Network and TRAVELSAVERS Canada welcomed new agencies in the first half of 2024; and Ensemble spread its wings Downunder.
In celebration of Sunwing’s Partner of the Month for July, Aston Hotels, the travel company is offering special deals, including upgrades and rate reductions, plus travel incentives for agents based on bookings to Cuba made by July 31.
The Mirage is about to vanish from the Las Vegas Strip. Gambling ended and the doors closed Wednesday at the iconic tropical island-themed hotel-casino that opened in 1989 with a fire-spewing volcano outside, and Siegfried & Roy’s lions and dolphins inside.
The Travel Corporation (TTC), the iconic travel brand founded, owned, and operated by the Tollman family for over a century is being sold. The company, which counts Trafalgar, Insight, Contiki, and Uniworld River Cruises amongst its portfolio of 40 brands, has entered an agreement to be acquired by global asset manager Apollo, which counts Yahoo and the Venetian resort in Las Vegas amongst its US$671 billion of assets under management.
Trevello Travel Group is planning to expand into the U.S. – “and beyond” – after 30 years in Canada. Travel industry veteran Elizabeth Crabill has been tapped to lead the efforts, operating as Chief Executive Officer of Trevello World Holdings (TWH). Reporting to Crabill, Zeina Gedeon remains CEO of Trevello’s Canadian operating company and will add responsibility as COO of TWH.
The pet rail project of Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador could wind up costing as much as US$30 billion, is only half finished as he heads into the final two months of his term, and has wreaked major damage on the environment. But the most damning judgment on the Maya Train tourist line, is that only about 1,200 people per day use it when the government had originally promised the train would carry between 22,000 and 37,000 daily.
MSC Cruises is introducing more than 90 shore excursions for MSC Yacht Club guests, providing guests touring options in the Caribbean, Mediterranean, and Northern Europe beyond existing shore excursion programs. The exclusive excursions are also designed to take care of all the details, from priority disembarkation, private transfers to local experts ashore.
ADM Aéroports de Montréal and Indigenous Tourism Québec (ITQ) have unveiled the first space showcasing Québec’s 11 Indigenous Nations at YUL Montréal-Trudeau International Airport. The initiative is the result of a mutual agreement to promote the cultures and tourism offerings of Québec’s 11 Indigenous Nations at strategic locations throughout the terminal.
Silvio Berlusconi, a cruise-ship singer, media mogul and a three-time premier who dominated Italian politics for three decades – and seen by some as a forerunner of Donald Trump – is getting a new act following his death last year. Milan’s Malpensa Airport, Italy’s second-busiest passenger airport, is being renamed for the billionaire businessman-turned-politician, Italy’s transport minister announced last week.
From new theme park attractions and star-studded soccer games to cultural festivals celebrating food and music, Orlando is promising a full agenda of for visitors this summer. Not to mention great deals that range to from 20 percent off airfare to free hotel nights.
The Tourism Industry Association of Ontario says the strike by workers at LCBO outlets in the province is hurting its tourism and hospitality businesses while union negotiations with the government drag on. Moreover, visitor experiences are being affected, says TIAO.
One of the busiest railway lines in Germany, the 70-kilometer stretch between Frankfurt and Mannheim, is closing for five months starting Monday as the country launches an effort to get its notoriously disruption-prone network into shape and promising to spend “historic sums” to do so.
A tour company helicopter crashed off the Hawaiian island of Kauai late last week killing one person and leaving two missing in the latest in a series of crashes to plague Hawaii’s flightseeing industry in recent years.
Turkish Airlines has enhanced its renowned Istanbul Stopover service for Canadian travellers, now providing an extra complimentary night’s accommodation at partner hotels for both Economy and Business Class passengers. This initiative is designed to enable travellers to immerse themselves in Istanbul’s rich history and vibrant cultural scene at no additional cost when flying internationally from Canada with a layover in Istanbul.
Air Canada Vacations has announced its fall product show dates, with the “Dream Makers” road show set to roll into five cities across the country – Vancouver, Edmonton, Halifax, Montreal, and Toronto – in September. The events will feature a trade show, news and updates presentation, networking with supplier partners, food and beverages, entertainment, prizes, and more.
Many of New Brunswick’s main tourism attractions suffered a significant downturn last year, so much so that a local mayor is calling on the province to start marketing cool coastal areas as a place to go to beat global warming.
Delta Air Lines is changing its employee uniform policy following a turbulent ride through a social media storm started by a passenger’s outrage over two flight attendants photographed wearing Palestinian pins. The uproar over the July 10 post, which described the Palestinian pins as “Hamas badges,” has led Delta to ban its employees from wearing pins representing any country or nationality besides the US.
North America isn’t the only the only place baking in the summer heat. A sizzling heat wave has sent temperatures in parts of central and southern Europe soaring toward 40 degrees Celsius in some places, prompting weather alerts, forest fires, and melting pavement in cities.
WestJet Airlines says the tentative contract between the company and its mechanics has been ratified. But though the deal is “good news,” the airline admits that the disruption the job action cause is “still concerning for our guests, the communities we serve, and our people.”
Venice on Sunday wrapped up a pilot program charging day-trippers an entrance fee, more than €2 million ($3 million) richer and determined to not only extend the levy but double it next year. However, opponents in the fragile Italian lagoon city say the €5 ($5.45) levy has failed to deter visitors on peak days, as envisioned.
A collective exhale from ACTA golfers in Ontario pushed the remnants of Hurricane Beryl just far enough to allow the association’s 34th annual tournament to get off the tee on Thursday, enabling a mostly sunny and typically enthusiastic event that allowed for a little welcome R&R for many members after what association president Wendy Paradis noted was a particularly challenging couple of weeks thanks to the aforementioned hurricane and WestJet strike woes.
Royal Caribbean International’s Utopia of the Seas has arrived in Port Canaveral (Orlando), Fla., ahead of its official debut later this week (Friday). The Oasis Class ship is the first of its kind to debut with three-night weekend and four-night weekday getaways.
As the US roils under its latest incident of gun violence (Trump assassination attempt), the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) reports it intercepted 3,269 firearms at airport security checkpoints south of the border during the first half of 2024 – an average of nearly 20 a day – and that 94 percent were loaded.
It was a week of heat and hurricane recovery and a big golf tournament (ACTA) in Ontario, but in other round-up news, Canada was forecast to have a historic year in tourism, Disney made news in Japan, Crystal announced plans for two more ships, and Air France-KLM and SAS are new codeshare partners.