Spring’s hotel headlines point to thoughtful growth in the industry, with new openings, innovative ownership models, and seasonal experiences that reflect evolving traveller priorities such as design, connection and a sense of place. Here are five highlights of note.
Yesterday marked the expiration of the Air Transat pilots’ collective agreement that had been in place for over 10 years. Over the last decade, the Air Transat pilots, represented by the Air Line Pilots Association, Int’l (ALPA), have twice put their needs on hold to help their employer—first through the unsuccessful merger attempt with Air Canada and later through the effort to restart the airline following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ponant Explorations is planning a world-first circumnavigation of Antarctica aboard the cruise company’s luxury icebreaker, ‘Le Commandant Charcot’ – a journey the company calls an “unprecedented feat” that will take place between January and March 2028.
As global heatwaves push summer travellers to reconsider their go-to getaways, coolcations are on the rise. Choosing milder destinations over blazing heat, more travellers are seeking out temperate escapes, with the Nordics fast emerging as a frontrunner for summer 2025.
Edmonton International Airport (YEG) has a new sensory room to support passengers with sensory sensitivities, including autism, anxiety and other cognitive or neurodivergent challenges. Developed in collaboration with Autism Edmonton, the space is located post-security in the domestic-international departures lounge across from Gate 49.
Unclaimed Baggage, a retailer of lost luggage, has released its annual 2025 “Found Report,” offering a glimpse into the most curious, costly and common items discovered in unclaimed luggage during the past year. And what happens to those items.
A US senator has asked top Trump administration officials to reconsider policies that are impacting travellers arriving in the United States, particularly in light of upcoming sporting events like the 2026 World Cup, which will be held in part in the country.
Famed rail operator Orient Express has opened its first hotel. Located in Rome, the Orient Express La Minerva reflects the company’s iconic history and refined approach to travel as befitting its home in a revived a 17th-century palazzo in a city that has been an essential stop for Orient Express travellers dating back to 1883.
This week: TTC Tour Brands announced its next tour week, featuring FAMs from Trafalgar, Insight, Contiki, and Costsaver; Travel Leaders Network started off 2025 well; and Ensemble has a new cruise partner.
In 2024, Colombia welcomed a record-breaking 6.7 million international visitors – an increase of around 8.5% from the previous year. So, with the South American country fully back on the tourism map, the president of ProColombia, the promotion agency of Colombia, weighs in on where – and when – to visit in 2025.
SeaWorld Orlando recently reached a historic milestone – 1,000 manatee rescues – marking a significant step in the ongoing fight to protect the vulnerable species. In 2024 alone, SeaWorld Orlando rescued 61 manatees and was able to rehabilitate and return 38 manatees.
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.
By Wallace Immen/ While Champagne’s traditional, it was premium Canadian whisky anointing the Great Lakes cruise ship Victory 1 in a recent christening ceremony at the Port of Toronto, where Godmother Emily Coleman broke a bottle across the bow of the first of two ships offering round trips between Toronto and Chicago.
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.
There is so much going in Switzerland this summer that a recent annual briefing from Switzerland Tourism stretched to 33 pages. From annual festival favourites to milestone anniversaries, and hotel happenings and touring tidbits to cultural can’t-misses, there’s literally something for everyone. But we don’t have the space, nor you the time, to list them all – myswitzerland.com does that – so we’ve settled on 10 items of interest guaranteed to make your clients yodel.
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.
Registration is now open for Sandals’ annual 2025 Masterclass training series. Designed exclusively for the Canadian market by Unique Vacations Canada, the sessions will feature both in-person sessions across the country and online events, led by national training manager Lorna Richards.
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.
A free room upgrade is the jackpot of hotel stays; with this in mind, Casino.org has sought out the “luckiest” hotel chains for guests to score the coveted bump. To that end, the company analyzed reviews of 40,000-plus properties across the 15 largest hotel chains in the US and Canada.
Caution: Don’t take a course in Oceania Cruise’s Culinary Centre on a full stomach. You’ll learn why soon enough. I’m just a guy whose past culinary achievements have been grilling burgers at summer barbecues and frying eggs at breakfast.
It’s remembered as the epic coming together of two of the world’s greatest rock bands, The Beatles and Queen. But the momentous jam by Paul, Ringo, Brian May and Roger Taylor – notably aided by a who’s who of musical friends, with a full orchestra, for the rendition of “All You Need is Love” – was so much more.
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.