Florida state tourism officials concede it’s been a rough go with the Omicron variant, but they’re optimistic that Canadians and other visitors will soon be heading south. According to the News Service of Florida and the Tampa Bay Times, Visit Florida President and CEO Dana Young said Wednesday that her group continues to market the Sunshine State as a winter destination in the U.S., and that they’re not slowing international efforts. Florida state economists last month slightly lowered expectations through the middle of 2022 for Canadian and overseas travellers, citing the Omicron variant as a potential brake on tourism growth. Read more
January 2022
Two well-known spots in Canada have made the top 10 of a new list of top natural world wonders. The folks at Kuoni Travel said they conducted a study using eye-tracking technology to find out the most “eye-catching” natural wonders on the planet. Coming in at the top of the podium was Peyto Lake, just north of Banff, Alberta. Sixth was Niagara Falls. Scoring two places in the top 10 is pretty impressive, I have to say. Great Britain scored two in the top seven, with the Jurassic Coast of England placing third and Snowdon, Wales coming in seventh. The Read more
The Canadian government has “intercepted and interrogated” some 27 of 130 passengers on board the now infamous Sunwing party flight from Montreal to Mexico. Speaking at a news conference today in Ottawa, Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said authorities are continuing their investigation and that the government of Quebec is looking at “penal and criminal issues” surrounding the flight. “Transport Canada rules were broken,” he said. Video footage surfaced this week showing influencers and Quebec reality TV actors partying on a flight from Montreal to Cancun on December 30. A bottle of vodka appeared at one point, and passengers were dancing Read more
Airline staffing issues and weather problems continue to bedevil would-be travellers in Canada and the U.S. New York City and Boston have been hardest hit today. As of 3:45 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday, January 7, the website flightaware.com reports 328 cancellations for Canadian airlines for the day. It also said nearly one-half of all flights for snowy Halifax, Nova Scotia have been cancelled today. According to the site, Air Canada Jazz alone has cancelled 150 flights, which represents 30% of their total for the day. WestJet Encore has cancelled 59 flights, or 31%, the site said. For Air Canada, Read more
An influential Canadian tourism group is urging Ottawa to loosen testing restrictions and allow arriving passengers to get rapid COVID-19 tests. The Canadian government currently requires arriving passengers to provide a negative result from a PCR-style COVID test taken within 72 hours of their scheduled departure. But those tests are expensive, and results in some cases are taking longer than 72 hours to be reported. And that makes travel difficult. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson this week said it will no longer require re-departure tests for people travelling to Great Britain. The Guardian reports that Johnson said the Omicron variant Read more
