| According to the latest Longwoods International tracking study of American travelers, 93% of them have trips planned in the next six months, the highest level in three years. A fifth of them have trips planned within a month, a quarter will travel in one to two months and almost a third have travel planned in three to five months.
“Inflation, higher interest rates and other economic headwinds are no match for consumer demand for travel,” said Amir Eylon, President and CEO of Longwoods International. “The outlook for spring break travel and summer travel is very positive.”
The latest Destination Analysts report finds that American travelers are keen to hit the road again this year. Company researchers asked 4,000 American travelers to think about how they expect to spend their household income in the next 12 months. They used a scale from “extremely high priority” to “no priority” to rate how much of a spending priority a number of products, services and hobby-pursuits will be.
Domestic leisure travel took the top spot, with 35% of American travelers saying that it will be a high or extremely high priority in their household spending this year. It beat out restaurants (32%), education (24%), home improvement (21%), clothing & accessories (20%) and entertainment (18%). Additionally, over 20% of American travelers said they would be highly prioritizing international leisure travel and 14% said they would be prioritizing luxury travel in their household spending.
 The Crane Resort in Barbados JIM BYERS PHOTO CARIBBEAN TRAVEL BOOMS
Despite global pressures such as high inflation, the war in Ukraine, the ensuing energy crisis, and an impending economic recession, the outlook for Caribbean travel and tourism is favorable, according to the Barbados-based Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO).
Delivering the region’s 2022 “Tourism Performance and Outlook Report” in Bridgetown today, Neil Walters, Acting Secretary General of the CTO, confirmed that the Caribbean had one of the quickest recovery rates globally in 2022, with 28.3 million registered tourist visits in 2022. This represents 88.6 percent of the visitors who arrived in 2019, which served as the baseline year for typical tourism activity before the pandemic.
He reported that international travel is expected to contribute to the region’s substantial gains already registered thanks to the robust United States market, which continues to drive the region’s recovery.
There was an estimated 28.1 percent increase in visitors coming from the U.S. market in 2022. At the end of the year, 14.6 million American tourists visited the region, 3.2 million more than the 11.4 million in 2021.
Arrivals from the European market increased by 81 percent in 2022 when compared to 2021. The 5.2 million tourists from this market were almost double the 2.8 million in 2021. This represented 18.3 percent of all arrivals in 2022,
Due to travel restrictions in early 2022, the Canadian market has recovered more slowly at 60 percent, while the lack of availability of intra-regional airlift has negatively impacted regional connectivity.
“Nearly 90 percent of the region’s travel demand for 2019 has already been recovered,” reported Walters, with destinations such as Curaçao, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, St. Maarten, Turks and Caicos, and the U.S. Virgin Islands already surpassing their pre-pandemic levels.
Caribbean destinations can expect this recovery to continue into 2023, albeit at a slower rate, Walters explained, predicting that growth will be uneven among the destinations, with additional countries and territories exceeding their 2019 levels.
According to STR, the average daily rate at hotels increased by 21.7 percent to US$290.60 in 2022. The revenue per available room surged by 66.4 percent to $176.46, and the number of available rooms (up 4.4 percent) as well as room income (up 73.6 percent) increased. After two challenging years for the aviation industry, global air passenger traffic recovered significantly in 2022.
It is estimated that visitors to the Caribbean region spent between $36.5 and $37.5 billion in 2022, an increase of 70 to 75 percent compared to 2021.
It is expected that overall arrivals to the region will increase by between 10 and 15 percent when compared to 2022, with 31.2 to 32.6 million tourists visiting the region this year. The cruise industry is also anticipated to continue recovering and expanding to meet increasing demand, with 32 to 33 million cruise passenger visits expected – a five to 10 percent increase over the pre-COVID baseline figure.
 The shopping/dining area at The Palazzo/Venetian complex in Las Vegas. JIM BYERS PHOTO FLAIR AIRLINES ANNOUNCES WINTER SCHEDULE FOR 2023/24
| Flair Airlines announces the release of its winter 2023/24 schedule. The schedule features added depth across the network to give customers more choice, particularly to sunshine, at low fares.
Today’s announcement includes several new routes, including Toronto to Puerto Vallarta (beginning October 29, 4x weekly), Kitchener-Waterloo to Puerto Vallarta (beginning December 16, 3x weekly), Calgary to Las Vegas (beginning October 30, 7x weekly), and Calgary to Phoenix (beginning October 30, 4x weekly). Flair will also be the only carrier to serve Ottawa to Las Vegas (beginning October 13, 2x weekly).
CTV News reports that starting Dec. 16, 2023, Flair will fly from Kitchener-Waterloo to Abbotsford International Airport in B.C., starting in May, three times a week.
Existing service from Vancouver and Edmonton to Phoenix will move to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport for the season, along with the new service from Calgary to Phoenix.
“With today’s exciting announcement, we are reaffirming our commitment to Canadians,” said Stephen Jones, President and Chief Executive Officer, Flair Airlines. “Our network offers more choice to more sun destinations than ever before. Rather than one reprieve from winter, we look forward to Canadians taking the opportunity to try all of the amazing destinations in our network.”
“We’ve optimized our network this winter to match demand for sun. It’s clear that Canadians want more affordable options for sun, more often,” said Garth Lund, Chief Commercial Officer, Flair Airlines. “We’ve focused on adding depth to our network by increasing frequencies on popular routes. We’ll now have daily service various routes, including Vancouver to Los Angeles and Toronto to Orlando to make it easier for Canadians to plan their winter travel.”
One-way fares at flyflair.com begin at $9 one way including taxes and fees (Thunder Bay to Toronto). Limited seats for a limited time. Flights are available for booking at flyflair.com.
All routes, including the winter schedule, are now on sale for 20% off base fare with code: SAVE20. Sale starts on March 7 and ends on March 9, 2023, for travel from March 7, 2023, to March 14, 2024. Terms and conditions apply. Limited seats for a limited time.
TRANSAT WILL FLY MONTREAL-LYON YEAR ROUND
| Air Transat is proud to announce that it will offer a non-stop service between Montreal and Lyon next winter, thus becoming the only airline to operate this route year-round. Canadian travellers will be able to discover or rediscover this city renowned for its gastronomy and enjoy easy access to the French Alps, a world-class ski destination. In winter 2023-2024, this route will operate three days a week from Montreal on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
Air Transat already flies up to seven times per week between Montreal and Lyon in the summer season. It services a total of eight French cities including two on a year-round schedule, namely Paris and now Lyon.
“As the leading carrier between Quebec and France, it was natural for us to add Lyon and its region to our winter program,” said Michèle Barre, Air Transat’s Chief Revenue Officer. “Route annualizations are part of our development strategy and, incidentally, our A321LR fleet is the best tool to meet this goal. We are delighted to meet the growing demand between Canada and France, which will benefit winter sports enthusiasts, business travellers and the expat community alike.”
The route will be operated with new generation Airbus A321LR aircraft featuring spacious cabins, state-of-the-art in-seat entertainment systems and the lowest fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions (CO2 and NOx) in their class. |
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