By Michael Baginski/    Florida’s tourism industry – and its partners in Canada – have been rocked by sudden legislation passed by the state House last week that would eliminate 62 tourist development councils across the state – affecting organizations such as Visit Orlando, which promote tourism to their destinations in markets including Canada.

Travellers are eager to hit the road in 2025 with more trips and longer stays, but government policy developments in the U.S. are nudging many international travellers – beyond Canadians –to reconsider how and where they go, according to the Spring 2025 Traveller Sentiment and Safety Survey conducted by Global Rescue. 

Exit tourists. Enter cardinals. The Vatican has closed the Sistine Chapel, where cardinals will gather next week for the conclave to elect the next pope after the death of Pope Francis on April 21 at age 88. Francis was buried Saturday after a funeral in St. Peter’s Square that gathered world leaders and hundreds of thousands of others, and a nine-day period of mourning is continuing before the conclave can start.

The Bermuda Tourism Authority (BTA), the destination marketing organization for the island of Bermuda, is accelerating its growth strategy in the North American market with the appointment of Fever Pitch Marketing Communications as its new Canadian agency of record.

By Michael Baginski/    Kicking off today (Monday), a whopping 30 U.S. destinations are taking part in Brand USA’s multi-day Brand USA ‘Canada Connect 2025’ mission, with timely events in Toronto and Montreal that the US DMO acknowledges are taking place at “pivotal moment” amid “shifting travel trends on both sides of the border.”

Major U.S. airlines are reducing their flight schedules and revising or withdrawing their profit outlooks for the year due to less domestic travel demand as sentiment about the national and global economies sours. American, Southwest and Delta all cited weakening sales among economy class leisure travellers in declaring the economic outlook too uncertain to provide full-year forecasts.

Shifts in the real estate market – such as declining demand for office and strata developments –have created a rare window of opportunity for hotel development in Vancouver – a city that urgently needs to build 10,000 hotel rooms by 2050 to keep pace with growing demand, according to a new report by Destination Vancouver and the BC Hotel Association.

Goway is raising the curtain on its first Micro Film Festival, and travel advisors are being invited to contribute – with the winning entrant earning a prize package that includes attendance at a gala screening event in Los Angeles.

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.

Operations at Pearson airport in Toronto Thursday morning were disrupted after a 30-year-old man was shot dead by police outside Terminal 1. Police described the event as an isolated incident and said there was no known threat to the public, nor was the airport itself the target. There were no other injuries.

The White House said this week that there have been “successes” at the Canada-U.S. border with only 54 people apprehended last month in the Swanton Sector of the northern border – which includes areas of New Hampshire, Vermont and New York – a 95% drop since March 2024.

India and Pakistan cancelled visas for their nationals to each other’s countries and India closed the only functional land border crossing between the countries in the latest retaliatory moves following the killing of 26 people, including 24 Indian tourists, in an attack by gunmen in disputed Kashmir, which India blamed on Pakistan.

By Michael Baginski/    Despite cross-border travel woes, the sky is far from falling for travel, according to a panel of top agents at Virtuoso’s recent ‘On the Road’ event in Toronto. Indeed, the biggest takeaway from the session was that travellers are mostly going to travel no matter what, though in the current circumstances, that may simply mean changing destinations – and how agents get them there may require some flexibility and finesse.

Air Canada has been ordered to pay passengers more than $10 million in damages by the Quebec Court of appeal in a class-action lawsuit that alleged they were charged more than the ticket price advertised – more than 15 years ago.

A coalition of North American tourism associations committed to open borders is calling for “innovative solutions and unified action” to protect and promote the “pivotal” role of travel during the current “unprecedented” bilateral crisis between Canada and the U.S.

This week: The Travel Agent Next Door has Flex Pay options for its advisors/clients; Globus family of brands is feeling ‘social’; a booking contest from Explore Worldwide (win a trip!); and loyalty program enhancements from Palladium Hotel Group.