A new study finds that Canada is one of the most googled vacation spots on earth. And a story from the New York Times focuses on how hotels are changing the way they do business as as result of COVID-19. My Future of Travel blog for Sunday, July 26.
There’s nothing wrong with sharing a silver medal.
A company called Kuoni recently analyzed Google searches for vacations and found that Canada finished in a tie for second as a potential holiday spot.
Waterton Lakes is probably my favourite national park in Canada. – JIM BYERS PHOTO
The study found that the United Arab Emirates, a group of states that includes Dubai and Abu Dhabi, came out on top. Canada, The United States and Qatar were tied for second, and Egypt was fifth.
For searches by folks in Asia, Canada was tied for first with the UAE, said officials from Kuoni, a luxury travel company.
The famous Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai. JIM BYERS PHOTO
For Americans, the top five were Japan, Italy, Greece, Ireland and Egypt. For Europeans, the most googled destination was The Maldives, while most South Americans googled Peru. Africa residents made the UAE their top Google search.
For Canadians, the most googled foreign destination was Japan.
Among the countries that made Canada their most-searched country were Zimbabwe, Guyana and Kazakhstan.
Hotels: The Times They Are A Changin’
The New York Times has a good item from reporter Julie Weed on how hotels are radically changing the way they do business in the wake of COVID-19.
Gone, or pretty much dead, are such loved amenities as chocolates on your pillow, free coffee in the lobby, throw pillows and turndown service.
(Mind you, that’s not the case everywhere. I was at the Hazelton Hotel in Toronto on Friday night and they asked if I wanted turndown service. I politely declined. I also noticed there was free coffee at the Holiday Inn Express and Suites in Waterloo/St. Jacobs when I was there two weeks ago.)
A hotel cleaner in action.
Still, this seems to be the case with a lot of hotels, who are making plenty of changes to enhance customer safety, or at least make guests FEEL like they’re in a healthier environment.
The posh Vinoy Renaissance St. Petersburg Resort and Golf Club in Florida is now asking for reservations at the main pool to limit the number of people in or around the water at any one time.
The Hazelton on Friday night had personal PPE kits for both my wife and I, complete masks, sanitizer and other safety items. And that’s a great idea.
The Times story said one hotel in Montana isn’t sending housekeepers into any rooms during a guests’ stay. If a guest wants a clean room, they’re moved to another part of the hotel, the paper said, and the housekeeping staff doesn’t clean a room until the guests have been gone for 24 hours, which is probably appreciated by the staff.
Not quite as romantic as it used to be, but that’s the way things may be for a while. As a travel agent from the Virtuoso network said in a webinar I listened to a couple months ago, “Clean is the new marble bathroom.”
