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.
Hurricane Beryl’s explosive growth early into an unprecedented early whopper of a storm – one that started in the southern Caribbean and looped its way over the course of about 10 days through Mexico and all the way back (albeit in diminished form) to eastern Canada – shows the literal hot water the Atlantic and Caribbean are in right now – and the kind of season ahead, experts say.
The world’s largest provider of airport lounges, Plaza Premium Group (PPG), plans to significantly expand its presence across the Americas, including undertaking “significant projects” in Toronto and Vancouver. The endeavour will be part of the Group’s larger commitment to invest US$300 million globally over the next three years.
A United Airlines jet from Miami to New Jersey made an unscheduled landing in Orlando, Florida, this week after a passenger became “aggressive and disruptive,” the airline said.
Later this year, The FRIENDS Experience will debut its West Coast flagship location in Las Vegas at MGM Grand. “The One in Vegas” transports guests into the world of the popular TV show allowing fans to explore the series’ iconic moments, behind-the-scenes content, and photo opportunities within life-sized set recreations.
You can’t keep a winner down. On her return to service, the classic Crystal Symphony has a strikingly fresh new look, with the verve and determination to make new magic. The ship is attracting a new generation of cruisers and long-time regulars are seeing her with a fresh eye.
In 2018, Chad McGehee opened Side Hustle Brews and Spirits, an Abu Dhabi-branded brewery and distillery with funky camels on its cans and playful names familiar to anyone living in the United Arab Emirates. The only problem was it was illegal to produce alcohol in the country, so his company made its hoppy India pale ale in the United States and then imported it to the UAE for sale.
With Caribbean destinations in Grenada, the Grenadines, Barbados and Jamaica picking up the pieces after devastating Hurricane Beryl, and several aid initiatives under to help those affected, one song, “We Got This,” performed by a collective of local artists, has emerged as a rallying cry for unity under duress.
The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) is forecasting a historic year for Canada’s Travel & Tourism sector in 2024, with the economic contribution set to reach an all-time high of almost $182 billion – a figure that exceeds the previous peak by $8.1 billion and generating one in every 15 dollars of economic activity.
VIA Rail has unveiled a special exterior design for one of its new Québec City-Windsor corridor trains. Featuring VIA Rail’s classic monochrome yellow while keeping the signature linear lines of the new trains, the new look will mark Lumi, the unique train of its new Corridor fleet.
Travelport has launched what it calls “revolutionary” content curation through the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) that will provide travel agencies more control over multi-source content within the Travelport+ platform, thus “makings agents’ lives easier and business more efficient.”
Disney is taking its cruise brand to Japan under an agreement that will see the company that owns and operates Tokyo Disney Resort build and operate a Disney-branded cruise ship in the country, which is expected to set sail by early 2029.
Located in the charming town of Las Galeras in the Samaná province of the Dominican Republic, the new all-inclusive Wyndham Alltra Samaná boasts ocean views, pristine white sands and all-day entertainment for all ages. Managed by Playa Hotels & Resorts, the resort marks Wyndham Alltra’s first resort in the DR.
Police in Iran shut down the Turkish Airlines office in the capital of Tehran this week after female employees there apparently refused to wear the mandatory headscarf, or hijab, in an act of defiance of the country’s law, according to Iranian media.
Fifty-two years and 39 Italian governments after it was first envisioned, Milan’s Brera Modern will be inaugurated in the fall, officials have promised. An extension of the famed Pinacoteca di Brera, the new museum will house more than 100 contemporary art works that belong to Brera’s collection that have mostly been relegated to storage.
Hundreds of visitors touring the American West and adventurers from around the US have been drawn to Death Valley National Park this week, even though the desolate region known as one of the Earth’s hottest places is being punished by a dangerous heat wave blamed for a motorcyclist’s death over the weekend.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl, the Grenada Tourism Authority (GTA) reports that southern Caribbean destination’s airport, hotels and attractions are fully operational on the “resilient” main island – as well as the cruise port, where Royal Caribbean’s Rhapsody of the Sea arrived yesterday (Tuesday) with over 2,300 passengers. But Carriacou and Petite Martinique suffered “catastrophic damage” and are desperately in need of aid.
It had been three years and eight months since I was last in Nassau. I can say that with definitiveness thanks to the cheery “welcome back” message I received on my WiFi log-in at the Grand Hyatt recently that indicated as much – although I would have recalled the precise timing of the visit since it was my last travel trip just before the pandemic struck. A lot has changed in the Bahamian capital in that time.
In this week’s round-up, Ensemble reveals details of its newly launched luxury certification program; Virtuoso cruise icons are treated to a trip to Tahiti, and First in Service (F1S) agents convene for the organization’s second annual summit in Orlando, Florida.
A growing demand for connections to Greenland – including tourism – has helped get weekly direct flights between Iqaluit and Nuuk off the ground this summer. But concerns remain about the sustainability of the flight to the Greenland’s largest city from Canada, which was cancelled in 2015 due to low ridership.