It’s a mixed bag today; both discouraging and hopeful. But lots of news today, including updates on when Carnival Cruises will begin again, a new customer safety program from Air Canada and a great Mother’s Day sale from Fairmont Hotels. Oh, and because I feel like, a nice item about a baby manatee being rescued in the Florida Keys. All in today’s FUTURE OF TRAVEL report.
It’s been a very rocky couple months for the cruise industry, but the news from Carnival provides a glimmer of hope. The cruise line on Monday said it will resume limited cruising out of Florida and Texas on Aug. 1. But don’t go for looking for Carnival ships in many other parts of the world, including Canada. At least not for a while.
“In connection with this plan, our pause in operations will be extended in all other North American and Australian markets through August 31,” Carnival said in a press release Monday morning. “All North American cruises from June 27 to July 31 will be cancelled.”
Here’s the story: https://ca.travelpulse.com/news/cruise/carnival-to-resume-limited-cruising-august-1.html
AIR CANADA CLEANCARE+ PROGRAM TO BOOST CUSTOMER SAFETY AND CONFIDENCE
Air Canada has announced the launch of Air Canada CleanCare+, a comprehensive program for personal safety and enhanced aircraft grooming to provide customers greater peace of mind during all stages of travel.
The new program is designed to reduce the risk of exposure to COVID-19 through such measures as mandatory pre-flight customer temperature checks in addition to required health questionnaires, seat assignment policies to allow for more personal space in Economy Class on all flights until June 30, 2020, and by providing all customers with care kits for hand cleaning and hygiene.
Here’s my story from TravelPulse Canada: https://ca.travelpulse.com/news/airlines/air-canada-announces-cleancare-program-for-customer-safety.html
FAIRMONT HOTELS AND MOM’S DAY
The new Clockwork Bar at the Royal York Hotel in Toronto. JIM BYERS PHOTO
Save now, travel later and don’t forget to take Mom. Our annual Mother’s Day e-gift card bonus sale returns on Wednesday May 6, 2020. From 2-5pm EDT only, purchase a Fairmont e-gift card and receive a 20% bonus e-gift card free! https://bit.ly/GiftCard_Terms
This photo shows the recently redesigned lobby at the Fairmont Royal York in Toronto, a beautiful and historic hotel. I wrote a blog about the re-design not long ago, which you can find here.
Fairmont has beautiful properties all across Canada and around the world, including the legendary Banff Springs in the Canadian Rockies and the Kea Lani, a fabulous family property on the Hawaiian island of Maui.
AIRLINE RECOVERY AT LEAST THREE YEARS AWAY
The head of Air Canada today said he doesn’t expect AC to return to 2019 levels of revenue and capacity for at least three years. He also said the entire industry and his own airline will be considerably smaller for some time.
President and CEO Calin Rovinescu also said AC will be gradually retiring many of its old, inefficient planes, including the Boeing 767, Airbus A319 and Embraer 190, which is being removed from the fleet immediately.
Rovinescu told an analysts call that Air Canada rouge is being turned into more of a leisure airline using narrow-body planes.
A story on The Points Guy website said that AC chief financial officer Michael Rousseau said during the call that “key international destinations” served by Rouge in Europe would be covered with Air Canada-operated Airbus A330s or high-density Boeing 777s in the future. He did not mention any of the budget airline’s services to South America.
The latest Rouge map shows service to 17 cities in Europe, including Athens (ATH), Berlin (TXL) and Lisbon (LIS), and four cities in South America as far away as Lima (LIM).
MGM RESORTS VEGAS LAYOFFS
The Las Vegas Review Journal says MGM Resorts International laid off several high-level executives in sweeping moves Friday, including a quartet of hotel presidents.
“Sources familiar with the company’s moves indicated that resort presidents Randy Morton of Bellagio, Cindy Kiser Murphey of New York-New York, Cliff Atkinson of Luxor and Eric Fitzgerald of Excalibur have been laid off. Sources also said other management-level positions had been cut across the company.”
US TRAVEL SAFETY CHANGES
Following a collaboration between medical experts and a broad array of businesses and organizations, the U.S. travel industry submitted to the White House and governors a document containing detailed guidance for travel-related businesses to help keep their customers and employees safe as the country emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Entitled “Travel in the New Normal,” the document describes vigorous measures the travel industry will follow to reduce the risk of COVID-19 and help to communicate across each and every step of a traveler’s journey. The goal: to allow travel to safely resume as states and municipalities relax physical distancing guidance.
“We want political leaders and the public alike to see that our industry is setting a very high standard for reducing the risk of coronavirus in our businesses, and that the practices in place to achieve that standard are consistent through every phase of the travel experience,” said U.S. Travel Association President and CEO Roger Dow. “As travel reopens, travellers need the confidence that safety measures are in place from their departure to their return home.”
SOMETHING POSITIVE OUT OF FLORIDA
A baby manatee rescued in Florida.
On a positive note that has very little to do with travel (hey, it’s my blog, I can do what I want), I see that folks down in Islamorada in the Florida Keys managed to rescue a baby manatee the other day. A nice, uplifting story, for sure. I got to swim with manatees in Crystal River, Florida a little more than a year ago. Very curious, gentle (and very large) creatures.
Here’s a link to a news feed with the video: https://miami.cbslocal.com/2020/05/03/infant-manatee-rescued-florida-keys/
