What Countries Are Open In Europe + Travel News of the Day

Forbes has a great item today about what countries in Europe are open for visitors. I’ve also got items on the resumption of cruise ship travel in Canada, passengers behaving badly, the resumption of Transat flights to Italy, a nice story on Ottawa and news about suspended flights between Vancouver and India.

WHAT COUNTRIES ARE OPEN IN EUROPE

Many European Union countries, including the UK and Ireland, have entirely done away with COVID-19 travel restrictions for non-EU travelers. Others, however, still have restrictions in place.

Continue reading the Forbes story here.

AND WHAT’S OPEN IN THE CARIBBEAN, TOO

Travelweek has done a great job pulling together a story on the status of travel to the Caribbean. Here’s their look at the rules for 25 Caribbean destinations.

TRANSAT RESUMES ITALY SERVICE

Air Transat is pleased to be back in Italy, after several months of forced suspension due to COVID-19. The airline is operating today its first flight between Montreal and Rome (TS402), which will be offered four times a week at the height of the season.

Air Transat offers a selection of direct routes to Italy from Montreal and Toronto:

 

Departure city	Destination	Starting	Nb of direct flights per week*
Montreal	Rome	April 8	4
Montreal	Venice	May 5	2
Toronto	Lamezia	June 8	1
Toronto	Rome	April 16	5
Toronto	Venice	May 2	1

*At the height of the season

FEDERAL BUDGET HELP FOR CANADIAN TOURISM

Destination Canada says there were a couple of nice bits of news for the Canadian tourism industry in Thursday’s federal budget announcement.

The Minister of Tourism will work with the tourism industry, provincial and territorial counterparts, and Indigenous tourism operators to develop a new post-pandemic Federal Tourism Growth Strategy, which will plot a course for growth, investment, and stability.  Indigenous Tourism  Budget 2022 proposes to provide $20 million over two years, starting in 2022-23, in support of a new Indigenous Tourism Fund to help the Indigenous tourism industry recover from the pandemic and position itself for long-term, sustainable growth.   Budget 2022 also proposes to provide $4.8 million over two years, starting in 2022, to the Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada to support its operations.

 

AIR CANADA SUSPENDS VANCOUVER-DELHI FLIGHTS FOR SUMMER

The CBC says Air Canada is suspending flights between Vancouver and Delhi, India, due to the extended flight times and stops to refuel as planes maneuvre around Russian and Ukraine airspace.

Flights will pause on June 2. Flights leaving from Vancouver will return on Sept. 6, and those leaving from Delhi will begin again on Sept. 8. Anyone already scheduled to fly during those months will be automatically rescheduled on another flight, the network said.

FIRST CRUISE SHIP IN CANADA IN TWO YEARS ARRIVES TOMORROW

Holland America Line will be the first cruise line to return to Canadian cruising following a more than two year industry-wide pause due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. Koningsdam will call at Victoria, British Columbia tomorrow (Saturday, April 9), thus restarting the cruise industry in Canada. The following day the ship will end its current seven-day cruise at Port of Vancouver, its homeport for the summer Alaska season.

Royal Caribbean was supposed to have stopped in Victoria earlier this week but the ship was instead sent to drydock in Oregon. 

THAILAND COULD RELAX TESTING RULES

Bloomberg reports that Thailand will consider scrapping a mandatory polymerase chain reaction test on arrival for foreign visitors as the Southeast Asian nation further relaxes its visa rules to attract tourists.    

The Health Ministry will propose replacing the RT-PCR tests with a rapid antigen test, Deputy Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul told reporters on Thursday.

U.S. TRAVEL ON A MAJOR UPSWING

The Washington Post reports that, in March, the Transportation Security Administration reported 19 days in which officers screened more than 2 million people, compared to none in March 2021. 

Airport officials and other tourism/travel types in the U.S. say business is booming, perhaps not back to 2019 levels but very much on the way.

A MESSY TRAVEL WEEKEND FOR BRITAIN?

The National News says more than 100 British Airways and easyJet flights scheduled for Friday have been cancelled, affecting about 15,000 passengers, before what is expected to be a nightmare weekend for UK airports. There’s apparently a lack of staff, partly due to COVID-19.

A NICE OTTAWA STORY FROM CONDE NAST

Nice to see Ottawa getting some love from Conde Nast traveler magazine. It’s a terrific city that I always enjoy visiting.

PASSENGERS BEHAVING BADLY

We’ve all seen videos or read stories about airline passengers behaving in a rude fashion. It’s a problem that’s been around forever, but it’s been exacerbated by mask rules and, I suspect, general crankiness from two years of travel restrictions.

WCNC News in Charlotte, North Carolina said there’s a new bill in the U.S. House of Representatives known as the “Protection from Abusive Passengers Act.” If passed, it would outright ban passengers who act out on flights from taking future commercial flights.