A week of drama ended with an 11th-hour deal between WestJet and its pilots averting a strike before the long weekend. In other news last week, the WTTC reported that Canada’s travel and tourism sector is within site of 2019 numbers; ACTA’s 2023 award nominations opened; and a fraudulent Ontario travel agent received 30 days in jail resulting from TICO charges.
WestJet and its pilots union say they have reached a last-minute deal, averting a strike ahead of the May long weekend. A statement from the Air Line Pilots Association says union leaders voted to approve an agreement-in-principle, with a membership vote to begin in the coming days.
Disney has asked a state judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a governing board appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis to oversee Disney World, claiming the company has been the victim of the “weaponizing” powers of government aimed at punishing it for opposing a law dubbed “Don’t Say Gay” by critics.
Canada’s 100 Best Restaurants List 2023 paints a vibrant portrait of the Canadian culinary scene. The list offers Canadians a guide to the country’s top dining destinations as selected by a team of 135 culinary tastemakers across the country, with judges including Lauren Mozer, Franco Stalteri, Michael Smith, Mijune Pak, Élise Tastet, and Alexandra Gill.
ACTA is now receiving nominations for the annual ACTA Awards – including a new Lifetime Achievement Award – for 2023. The honours will be bestowed at the annual ACTA 2023 Eastern Canada Travel Industry Summit in September in Toronto.
After years of drought and as a historic snowpack starts to melt, the spring runoff is fuelling conditions for some of the best whitewater in years on California’s American River and its forks, which course through the Sierra Nevada northeast of Sacramento.
Staying connected on expeditions to remote locales or even on a leisurely sail in the Caribbean is becoming easier this year as cruise lines swap their old satellite equipment for the speedier Starlink system.
Visit California was in town (well, Niagara on the Lake) recently, which, naturally leads to wine talk. And California wine makes me think of Chris Isaak. Why? Because a few years ago I was at the Robert Mondavi winery in the Napa Valley for dinner (spectacular, I might add), and was greeted by a roadside marquee: “Chris Isaak performing.”
A Canadian man was shot to death in Mexico’s Pacific coast beach town of Puerto Escondido, prosecutors said Tuesday. He was the second foreign tourist killed in the southern state of Oaxaca in less than a week.
No sign of a breakthrough emerged in talks between WestJet and its pilots Wednesday, as the company’s CEO deemed the union’s expectations unrealistic while the Air Line Pilots Association slammed the airline for trying to ‘publicly villainize’ its workers.
It didn’t take The Mamas and the Papas to start Canadians dreaming about California. Indeed, with visitation numbers from this country expected to reach pre-pandemic levels this year – and surpass them in 2024 – many Canadians are ready to turn dreams to reality again and return to the Golden State.
‘Tis the season for conferences, including recent gatherings by Trevello, Ensemble, and TRAVELSAVERS Canada; TDC isn’t looking a gift horse in the mouth; plus, a “major victory” in the courts for Travel Leaders Group.
Air Canada and flydubai have announced a new partnership to give customers flying between Canada, the Middle East, East Africa, Indian Subcontinent and Southern Asia more travel options. The carriers will codeshare on nine markets and interline on more than 60 others beyond Dubai
Exceptional rains this week in a drought-struck region of northern Italy have swelled rivers over their banks, killing at least eight people, forcing the evacuation of thousands, and forcing Formula One to cancel this weekend’s Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix to not overtax emergency crews that are already stretched thin.
Google Analytics is a powerful tool for understanding your website’s audience and optimizing your digital strategy across platforms. Here are some tips and a usage guide on Google Analytics:
The travel plans of WestJet customers are up in the air after its pilots’ union issued a 72-hour strike notice Monday night. The gambit by the Air Line Pilots Association started a countdown to a flight crew walkout at 3 a.m. on Friday morning, just ahead of the busy May long weekend.
The Mastercard Economics Institute has released its fourth annual travel report, Travel Industry Trends 2023, offering insights across markets about the global state of travel punctuated by shifting economic landscapes, persistent consumer demands, and a reopening mainland China.
More than 74 million visitors came to the Orlando in 2022, making the destination the most visited in the US, according to Visit Florida. Among them were over 860,000 Canadians, representing the Florida city’s top international market.
If the 21-storey Leonard Cohen mural that commands Montreal’s skyline could talk, it might tell you what this city’s crackling cultural life was like when the pandemic hit and everyone hunkered down. To borrow from his lyrics, it was a cold and a broken hallelujah. The party’s back on.
American Airlines has signed a new lease at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport – the world’s second busiest airport – that will include US$4.8 billion to build a new terminal and renovate one of the five current terminals, airline and airport officials said Tuesday.
Cunard has announced its Winter 2025 program, offering over 133 voyages, with stops at 159 unique destinations around the globe. The luxury cruise line also revealed that its highly anticipated Queen Anne will be the only one of vessels to offer a full World Voyage in 2025.
Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts its preparing to open a new luxury property in the Moroccan capital of Rabat, the luxury chain’s fourth hotel in the country. Expected to open later this year, Four Seasons Hotel Rabat at Kasr Al Bahr will be set within a 19th-century palace overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, 90 minutes from Casablanca’s Mohammed V International Airport.
A new report by the World Travel and Tourism Council finds that Canada’s travel and tourism sector is poised for major recovery this year and is within sight of its previous peak in 2019. If achieved, the activity would furnish some 90,000 more jobs to reach 1.64 million this year, recovering nearly all the travel and tourism positions scrapped during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Travellers may have little say on how climate crisis affects the places they visit and love, but they could play a more prominent role in helping them recover from environmental calamities if a bold idea by Jamaica’s tourism minister takes hold.
Several heat records were broken over weekend as British Columbia continues to be gripped by heat, fire, flood risk. Unseasonably hot temperatures are afflicting much of province with a heat warnings issued for the north coast, including Kitimat and Terrace.
Emirates recorded its most-profit year ever in 2022, earning US$2.9 billion after bouncing back from the coronavirus pandemic shutting down global aviation. The carrier’s revival matches Dubai airport, which posted record passenger traffic in the first quarter. Emirates has also announced an expanded interline agreement with Etihad, and a new country manager for Canada.
Stroll out of your ocean-view room, fresh cup of locally roasted coffee in hand, gaze past the palm-tree-shaded pool and out onto the combed beach to watch the sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean. This serene experience has been happening for more than a century at Florida beach hotels in The Palm Beaches, America’s First Resort Destination.
The historic Roosevelt Hotel in midtown Manhattan shuttered three years ago, but it will soon be bustling again – reopening to accommodate an anticipated influx of asylum seekers just as other New York City hotels are being converted to emergency shelters.
After a hiatus of three years due to the pandemic, PATA Travel Mart 2023 will return Oct. 4-6 in New Delhi, India. The annual trade show of the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) will be hosted by the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India.
Talks between WestJet pilots and their employer were unresolved over the weekend as the union warned a walkout could come as early as this week. Members of the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) will be in a legal position to strike as of May 16, but first must give a 72-hour strike notice ¬– something union boss Bernard Lewall said on Friday was “premature.”