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.
NEWS
CUPE’s Airline Division, representing 18,500 flight attendants across Canada is calling on parties to pledge that they will introduce legislation to ban unpaid work in the airline sector if elected.
The effort comes as part of CUPE’s ‘Unpaid Work Won’t Fly’ campaign, which highlights “abusive and archaic pay practices in the airline industry,” claiming the average flight attendant in Canada works 34.86 hours unpaid every month – “usually while carrying out vital, safety-related duties mandated by Transport Canada.”
The Federal Court of Appeal is upholding a decision by the country’s transport regulator that aims to boost accessibility for air travellers living with a disability. A judicial tribunal has dismissed an appeal by Air Canada that sought to overturn a requirement to fully accommodate passengers whose wheelchairs are too large to fit through the cargo doors of some aircraft.
A recreational submarine taking 45 tourists on an underwater cruise of coral reefs in the Red Sea sank off the Egyptian resort town resort town of Hurghada on Thursday, leaving six Russians dead. The remaining tourists, more than two dozen of whom were injured, were rescued. The cause of the sinking was not immediately known
AIR
A new partnership between Porter Airlines and Pascan Aviation will improve access to air travel across Eastern Canada, taking advantage of Porter’s growing North American network and Pascan’s Québec and Maritimes-focused regional flights. Primary connecting airports are in Halifax and Québec City, with other hubs serving as secondary options. The carriers say more than 90 connecting routes available, linking eight Pascan destinations across Canada’s eastern provinces with Porter flights to points across North America.
WestJet will launch new service between Halifax and Barcelona, Spain, beginning June 27. The seasonal route will operate four times per week as part of WestJet’s summer 2025 schedule, offering Atlantic Canadians a direct connection to the popular destination. Flights between YHZ and Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport (BCN) will operate through Sept. 28/29.
Available to its clients and members of Star Alliance partner airlines, Avianca, in collaboration with TAP Air Portugal, has officially opened its VIP lounge at Miami International Airport, marking the airline’s 11th lounge globally.
DEALS
Until April 6, Air Transat is offering round-trip flights to Europe starting at $549 and one-way flights to the South starting at $229. Full details at airtransat.com.
The ‘Spring Flash Sale’ from Contiki offers 20% off across over 30 diverse itineraries, including some of the summer’s most popular destinations. The sale runs until April 8.
Rocky Mountaineer’s Journey to Jasper Promotion is available now through April 11, 2025 – enabling savings of CDN$500 p.p. or $1,000 per couple on select 2025 packages. The special offer is valid for new bookings only and applies to both GoldLeaf Service and SilverLeaf Service.
Edinburgh-based tour operator HAGGiS Adventures’ ‘Epic Scottish Tour Sale’ offers 20% off day tours from Glasgow and a 15% discount on a selection of day and multi-day adventures departing from Edinburgh and Inverness. Use the promo code SALE2025 on bookings made before April 4 for tours departing until Dec. 31.
HOTELS & RESORTS
Blue Diamond Resorts has unveiled its latest all-inclusive in the Caribbean: Royalton CHIC Jamaica Paradise Cove. Set to debut in late 2026, and building on its efforts in Cancun, Punta Cana, Antigua and the upcoming resort in Barbados, the adults-only Autograph Collection resort will be located in Runaway an hour from Montego Bay airport and 40 minutes from Ocho Rios.
As Saint Lucia’s Coconut Bay Beach Resort & Spa celebrates its 20th anniversary, the property is renovating all of its 250 rooms, with the US$24-million project to continue into next year. Meanwhile, adjacent sister property Serenity will break ground on an $80-million expansion in September.
TOUR OPERATORS
Small-group operator G Adventures has launched over 100 new itineraries spanning the globe. Highlights include new trips in the Balkans, Finland and Africa across G Adventures’ Local Living, Solo-ish, Geluxe, Classic and 18-to-Thirtysomething styles.
A new 2025-26 British Isles brochure from Collette is now available, with four of the
14 tours in the tour operator’s small group Explorations product line, maxing out at just 24 travellers. The brochure is available through the new Collette Connection on-demand print service, which allows advisors to order the British Isles brochure with an attached personalized letter to their clients. View or order HERE.
TravelBrands has been named the winner of the Key Account Celebrity Cruises Ambassador Award for 2024. This award highlights TravelBrands’ excellence within the Canadian travel industry and its impactful contributions to charitable initiatives and community engagement.
BY THE NUMBERS
Adventure Canada says it has seen an unprecedented rise in interest and bookings from Canadian travellers, with 71% of guests in 2025 hailing from Canada – a number that has climbed to 78% already for 2026. The company attributes the surge to the growing trend of Canadians prioritizing travel within their own country and choosing to support homegrown companies.
CRUISE
Through May 31, Oceania Cruises (above) is offering Canadian Dollars at Par on more than 60 select 2025 and ‘26 voyages to all Canadian residents. The offer is in addition to Oceania Cruises’ signature value ‘Your World Included’ promise, which includes free gratuities, complimentary specialty dining, and free Wi-Fi.
Viking took delivery of the Viking Nerthus, the company’s newest 168-guest longship, which is now sailing the ‘Paris & the Heart of Normandy’ and new eight-day ‘Christmastime in Paris & Normandy’ itineraries on the Seine in France through September.
ATTRACTIONS & THEME PARKS
SeaWorld Orlando reached a historic milestone – 1,000 manatee rescues – marking a significant step in the ongoing fight to protect this vulnerable species. In 2024 alone, SeaWorld Orlando rescued 61 manatees and was able to rehabilitate and return 38 manatees.
FAMS & INCENTIVES
Visit Lauderdale is now offering a Lauderdale Loyalist incentive program for Canadian advisors only. The special opportunity will run from March 25 through May 20 and all travel industry professionals from Canada that complete the Loyalist program in that time frame will be eligible for a hotel prize in the Greater Fort Lauderdale region. Advisors can download the mobile apps from the App Store or Play Store, or register online HERE.
EVENTS
Travel Leaders Network (TLN) has announced dates and locations for its 2025 series of mixer events, which provide a platform for key supplier partners to interact face-to-face with owners, managers and their advisors. Following is the remaining schedule for this year (register through CanadaNet):
- Eastern Canada: April 01 – Windsor; April 15 – Cambridge, Ont.; May 13 – Toronto; Sept. 23 – Moncton; Sept. 24 – Halifax; Oct. 30 – Toronto; Nov. 04 – St. Catharine’s, Ont.; Nov. 18 – Montréal; Nov. 19 – Ottawa; Dec. 02 – Richmond Hill, Ont.
- Western Canada: April 16 – Vancouver; May 13 – Edmonton; May 27 – Calgary; Aug. 26 – Winnipeg; Sept. 18 – Saskatoon; Oct. 07 – Calgary; Nov. 18 – Winnipeg; Dec. 03 – Vancouver.
PEOPLE/APPOINTMENTS
Development Counsellors International (DCI) has been appointed the new public relations agency of record for Tourisme Montréal in the Canadian market with the task of reinforcing the city’s commitment to attracting Canadian visitors with its vibrant cultural, culinary, and events scene.
Club Med has named Natasha George BDM for Ontario and Western Canada. Reporting to Associate VP of Sales Canada Jacinda Lowry, she will officially begin her role on April 22. George, who joined Club Med as a Travel Experience Designer, replaces Samantha Gillingham who left the company.
DESTINATIONS
Tall Ships will be returning to the Toronto’s Waterfront Festival June 28-29. The fleet of historic tall ships will be docked at Sugar Beach and will be comprised of all schooners and include three ships that have never visited Toronto before: Lettie G. Howard, built in 1893 and a ‘living history’ vessel for education and sail training; Ernestina-Morrissey, known for her unique place in immigration history; and Liberty Clipper, named after John Hancock’s revolutionary-era ship. Returning favourites include the Empire Sandy, Canada’s largest passenger ship of her kind, and Pride of Baltimore II, which has visited over 200 ports in 40 countries.
From May through November, the Tower of London will mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War with a new display of ceramic poppies installed at the heart of the historic fortress. The new installation will use poppies from the acclaimed 2014 artwork, ‘Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red,’ which saw the Tower encircled by a ‘sea’ of poppies becoming a site for remembrance visited by over 5 million people. Nearly 30,000 poppies from the original installation, on loan from the UK’s Imperial War Museums’ collection, will return to the Tower to form a new display, marking and reflecting on the sacrifices made by so many during the Second World War.
LAST WEEK IN TRAVEL HISTORY
In 1977, in the world’s worst airplane disaster, 582 people died when two jumbo jets collided and burned on a runway at Tenerife in the Canary Islands. (The worst single-plane disaster was the 1985 crash of a Japan Air Lines jet, which killed 520.)
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