Florida Launches Post Hurricane Tourism Push; Toronto Pearson Fee Hike

With Hurricane Ian receding on the news cycle, Florida’s tourism-marketing agency is launching a $2.7 million USD campaign to show that large areas of the state were not badly damaged by the storm.

Fox News says the Visit Florida campaign will run on digital and social media platforms through the end of October and show recent footage taken from 14 parts of the state with the message, “Sun’s Shining in Florida.”

Florida is, of course, a very large state. Hurricane Ian devasted areas around Fort Myers/Sanibel/Captiva, but many other areas of the Sunshine State, including Saint Augustine and Florida’s Historic Coast, have fully reopened.

TORONTO PEARSON FEES GOING UP

My former newspaper, the Toronto Star, has a big story on its website about Toronto Pearson increasing fees. Pearson announced the changes back on September 28, saying that aeronautical rates for commercial aviation, business aircraft and general aviation aircraft will increase by 4 per cent. The airport improvement fee for departing passengers will increase by $5; whereas the fees charged for connecting passengers will increase by $1.

The impacts of the pandemic both on the global air travel industry and on Pearson have been significant, with the airport having added significant debt to its balance sheet to remain operational over the last two years, officials said.

The Star, and my friend Josh Rubin, took the story to the next level, quoting airline officials as saying they’re disappointed in the move.

A temple in Penang, Malaysia. JIM BYERS PHOTO

MALAYSIA COURTS AMERICANS AND CANADIANS

Malaysia is taking another initiative in the North America market, which includes Canada, to boost inbound tourism following its international border reopening.

Tourism Malaysia Los Angeles Office this month took seven travel advisors on a familiarization trip led by Mr. Akbal Setia, the Vice President of Tourism Malaysia for the Americas. Participants w3re given the chance to visit several destinations in Peninsular Malaysia including Kuala Lumpur, Cameron Highlands, Perak and Penang, where they had the opportunity to gain first-hand experience with high-end products as well as cultural experiences in addition to a business-to-business program.

I was in Penang in 2015 and had a marvellous time. Check my story here from the Toronto Sun.

Included in the program was a session with Malaysian Association of Tour & Travel Agents, where the travel advisors met up with Malaysia industry stakeholders and thus support the package development essence to capture high-end tourists from the USA and Canada.

Before the pandemic, Malaysia had welcomed 269,928 visitors from the USA and 87,568 from Canada in 2019, an increase of 6.5% and 3.4% from 2018 respectively. Tourism Malaysia hopes that this program will motivate its Americans and Canadians industry friends to promote Malaysia as a top-of-mind holiday destination with a diversity of attractions, as well as a value-for-money.

WAITING FOR PORTER

Porter Airlines announced last year that it was buying Embraer jets and would expand operations to Pearson Airport so it could fly to such far-flung destinations as Vancouver, Florida, Mexico and the Caribbean.

Their website states that “our initial set of new routes will be finalized ahead of aircraft deliveries in mid-2022.”

We’re well past mid-2022 and approaching the end of the year but there’s been no word yet on the precise destinations, or when flights might start. They have been training pilots, however, so it’s probably not far away.